Hellhound
by IdiotWithaBoxandaScrewdriver
Summary: A tyrant rules, and his law enforced by soldiers known as Hellhounds. Yugi, the new second in command, is sent to retrieve his predecessor, Yami. But, will trying to capture this man prove to be his downfall?
1. First Task

Wolf: Hello, new story! I own nothing but the plot, and any OCs that may show up in the story!

The world had been unified. All nations had been dissolved, no more boundaries, no more nationalities. Of course, the old names continued to be used, but they did not hold the same meaning as they once did, in a time that people are beginning to forget, though it has only been fifteen years or so.

This world was not some peaceful Utopia of people without fear or hate. No, this world was one ruled with an iron fist and control enforced by fear, intimidation and acts of violence. This world had been taken hostage, and no one had been able to break the grip of the man that held it.

No one knew his name anymore, he was simply known as the Overlord. A tall, imposing man with short greying hair, moustache and a permanent smirk upon his face, he was the very picture of fear for the inhabitants of the world. He was the one who had ultimate control over what happened in the world, and the governors of each area, what used to be countries, all served him with the same amount of fear and awe as the common people.

Not that he was alone in his intimidation, no. He had a special unit of soldiers that specialized in dealing with troublemakers. He called them the Hellhounds. They were like his dark demons, and people feared to even mention their name, lest they should appear and make an 'example' of them.

These were no ordinary soldiers. The men and women of the Hellhounds were trained to ignore emotions and pain, taught to do whatever it took to fulfil their mission, no matter what the cost. They could ignore hunger and thirst, cold and heat, nothing seemed to affect them. They were cold, inhuman and merciless. Some wondered if indeed they were some form of demon, because they did not even act human.

They were selected at a young age, those that showed promise of great physical prowess for the lower level Hounds, and those that showed an aptitude for strategy for the higher ranks. They were taken as young as possible, to allow the training, and some would say, brainwashing, to settle in while the mind was still malleable and unfixed with bothersome ideas.

The Hellhounds no longer had names, rather they were designated by a code of numbers, unique for each Hellhound. The lowest ranks, the 'grunts' only ever were called by these numbers. The more intelligent, officer ranks that either operated on their own or commanded a battalion of grunts, were designated with Greek letters. The lower ranks of these were designated by a letter and the numbers, but the two highest ranks were simply called Alpha and Beta, and they were the smartest, most efficient Hellhounds in the ranks.

The Alpha was in face his own adopted son. A young man with cold blue eyes, brown hair, impossibly tall with lean muscles, he had been the perfect test subject for the Overlord's ideas of training. Alpha was the perfect killing machine, cold, calculating and precise.

However, for some time the Overlord had been without a Beta. He had been very aggrieved of this fact, but a Beta was not something you could just pull out of the masses and install immediately. A Beta had to be intelligent, had to know how to strategize, had to be unfailingly loyal, impervious of pain, or emotion and willing to do whatever it took to get the job done.

It had taken three long years, but he had managed to finally find, and groom a young man into the next Beta. His number was 9844 and he was one of the greatest strategists that the Overlord had ever seen, barring his previous Beta. The strangest thing was, the boy resembled his old Beta physically.

The boy was about twenty years old, but looked to be only twelve. His face was full and somewhat childish, large violet eyes only adding to the illusion. His hair spiked high over his head and was divided into three colours. Choppy golden bangs framed his face, while the black body of his spikes gave away to crimson tips. He was fairly small, but used his size to his advantage in fights.

Currently, the Overlord was watching 9844 fight against three opponents, three Gammas, the rank right below Beta. 9844 was holding his own well, taking hits, but not allowing that to slow him down or even registering that he could feel it. As he watched 9844, he could see that he was purposely backing the three Gammas into a corner, feigning weakness while he circled around them.

A satisfied sigh escaped his lips as 9844 turned the tide and swiftly beat all three Gammas into unconsciousness as he shoved them into the corner that they had thought they were trapping him in. "I think he is worthy, what say you, Alpha?" The Overlord asked.

"My opinion is of no matter." Alpha answered, voice devoid of any inflection. "You make the final decisions, but he is as crafty as the old Beta was."

"Indeed." The Overlord opened the door to the training room and stepped inside. "9844!" He called. The boy, wiping blood off his hands with a towel, turned and saluted smartly as the Overlord walked up. "Congratulations, you have proven yourself to be skilled in all aspects as befits a Hellhound."

"Thank you, Overlord." The boy's voice might have been sweet, if it didn't sound so dead.

"From this day forth you have your new rank. You are now Beta." The Overlord told him.

"I am pleased that you find my performance acceptable, Overlord." The new Beta replied. "What do you wish of me?"

"Actually, there is a mission for you, and when you succeed, you will have proven yourself to be even better than your predecessor." The Overlord stated.

"Your word is my law." The answer drilled into Hellhounds from day one. Total compliance, and no option for failure.

"Your mission is to bring back the previous Beta for... re-education." The Overlord stated. For a moment the emotionless violet eyes flickered, but then it was gone.

"I was unaware that he was found." Beta replied.

"We got a satellite picture of him, in the province of what was once Egypt." The Overlord replied. He pulled out a file folder and handed Beta a picture of a man. Beta inspected it. He had been told he looked like the old Beta, and here was the proof. The man did not have the childish facial structure that he did, and the narrow eyes were a deep crimson. His hair had additional bolts of gold streaking up through the black, but other than that, he could have been looking at his twin.

"So I go in and get him." Beta stated.

"Not quite." Alpha stated. "Our intelligence says that the old Beta, who now calls himself Yami, only goes into the towns a few times a month and then disappears to somewhere. We suspect he may be a part of the rebel force that has been making a nuisance of itself for the past several months."

"This mission is going to require finesse." The Overlord continued. "You will need to be undercover, and see if you can find this rebel base along with bringing back Yami. No one must know that you are a Hellhound."

"Then I cannot be calling myself Beta." Beta replied.

"No, you are to be assigned a civilian name." Alpha replied. "For this mission, you will answer to the name of Yugi."

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Wolf: Review plz!


	2. Old Beta, New Beta

Wolf: I own nothing, now on to the story!

Beta, or Yugi, stepped off the plane and looked around the arid land he found himself in. There wasn't much to see, the airport was a ways outside the city and he would have to take a car in. Sand, sand and more sand, that was the only thing for as far as the eye could see. Yugi's mind immediately began calculating how much harder it would be to fight in sand, and whether there could be rebels lying in wait.

He decided that there couldn't be rebels, as they did not know he was coming, did not know who he was, and he wasn't even dressed like a Hellhound anyways. Instead of the all black, Kevlar reinforced uniform; he was wearing faded blue jeans, sneakers, and a form-fitting violet t-shirt that matched his eyes.

It certainly wasn't the kind of outfit that a combat soldier would wear, but the lack of body protection did not faze Beta. He shook his head, reminding himself that he should refer to himself as Yugi, even in his head, so he would not forget and blow his cover. The only weapons he was carrying were two knives strapped to the inside of his thighs, where he could reach into his loose jeans and grab them, and a knife strapped to his ankle. Those were only if hand-to-hand combat was proving to be ineffective.

A taxi was waiting for him outside. The driver gave his emotionless eyes a nervous, suspicious look, but complied quite eagerly when faced with money. As they bumped along the rickety road Yugi took the file folder he'd been given out of his backpack and reviewed the contents. There were a couple places where the target had been seen hanging out more than once and he would search in those areas first.

The cab driver attempted to engage him in conversation, but Yugi did not have any 'banter' in him, and he basically ignored the man until he went silent again. Instead he studied the picture of his target again, Yami. He would not be difficult to locate in a crowd; his face was very memorable, as was his hair. The crimson eyes were staring straight at the camera, and Yugi all the sudden got the uncomfortable feeling that they were boring into his mind.

'It's just a picture.' Yugi reminded himself. 'Stop this at once. Emotion is weakness, and I cannot be weak.' All the same, he closed the file folder, saving himself from that penetrating gaze. He focused on the road ahead instead, thinking of strategies on how to take down Yami. It would be his hardest fight, as Yami was the previous Beta, and so on the same level he was. His best option would likely be a sneak attack.

The sea of shifting sand soon turned to small shacks, the shanty town at the edge of the cities. These rude structures were little more than cardboard and aluminum and often housed an inordinate amount of people. But because Yugi was not subject to human emotions, he felt no pity for these, the poorest of the poor.

The houses eventually got better, but they were still fairly shabby, even in the center of the city. Most of them had at least one boarded up window and graffiti tags somewhere. A lot of the houses were traditional white-washed stone houses that looked like blocks. There was quite a bit of western-inspired houses, and the shops were mostly brick or steel and brick structures.

"Keep the change." He told the cab driver, handing over his money. The driver looked at the money and his eyebrows rose at how much extra he'd been given.

"Thank you sir!" He smiled, showing off a gap-toothed smile. "May the gods rain blessings down upon your head."

Unsure of how to respond to that, Yugi merely nodded his head, shouldered his pack and walked down the dusty streets. Sand was everywhere, of course, they were surrounded by a desert, and it blew along the streets, getting into every nook and cranny it could. Shop owners and tenants did the best they could to sweep it away from doorways, but it always came back.

Yugi set out and found a small motel. Like most of the shops and homes in this area, the quality of the place was... questionable. When Yugi got to his room, he took one look at the stained mattress of the bed, and the little dots marking bedbugs, and decided to sleep on the floor. He had no need of comfort anyways.

He hid his scant belongings under the bed and then exited the room, locking it behind him. There was nothing of any value, but he did not need anyone who might be a rebel getting a hold of his files and knowing who he was after.

It was getting close to sunset, and the bars were opening. Yugi chose to head to those bars that Yami had been seen hanging out in first, try and see if he couldn't get any information about his habits. As he walked the streets he noticed people giving him suspicious and hostile looks.

This area was classified as 'disturbed'. Crime was high, and examples were being made constantly. There was a small force of Hellhounds perpetually assigned to patrol the areas of greatest unrest daily, and execution rates were the of the highest in the world. It did not surprise anyone that a rebel force would come from this hotbed of insurgents.

He entered the bar that he was told that Yami had been seen at the most. The inside was dim, but clean and classy looking. "Well, don't often get newcomers in here." The busty, tall woman behind the bar commented. She had wavy, long blonde hair and purple eyes. "What can I get for you?"

"A soda water for now." Yugi replied. He wasn't about to compromise himself by drinking, not that he even enjoyed the sensation anyways. He got a raised eyebrow in response to his request.

"You sure you don't want anything else?" Yugi nodded his head curtly. She shrugged and brought him the soda water. He sipped from it carefully, scanning the bar for his target. He didn't seem to be in the bar at the current moment; time to do some detective work.

"Do you know of a man named Yami?" He asked the barkeep. She gave him a strange look. Yugi all the sudden felt someone sidle up beside him at the bar.

"I do believe I heard my name over here." A deep, rich, amused voice said. Yugi turned his head and found himself staring into the eyes of the man who was his target. He automatically started thinking of ways to get him alone and subdued. "Well, aren't you a pretty one." Yami purred, crimson eyes narrowing in approval. "What's your name?"

"Yugi." Yugi replied after a moment's hesitation.

"Why exactly is a little thing like you looking for me?"

"I heard you can get things." Yugi murmured. The spies had found out that in addition to working for the rebels, Yami was also a smuggler.

"Depends on what kind of things." Yami murmured back, leaning in close enough that Yugi could smell his cinnamon-scented breath.

"Weapons." Yugi said casually.

"That could take time." Yami said thoughtfully.

"I have time." Yugi replied. Yami nodded his head and told him where to find him for the drop-off. Yami then took a beer for the road and left. Yugi waited a heartbeat and then walked out of the bar as well. As he got out into the setting sun, he saw Yami turn into an alleyway. He followed quietly, instantly on high alert.

He didn't see Yami in the fading light, so he cautiously padded along, looking for any sign of where he'd gone. Suddenly he was slammed in the back. He quickly twisted and aimed a punch at his attacker's head. His punch was blocked and his wrist grabbed and pulled above his head.

He was pushed backwards by his opponent's heavier weight, pressed up against the wall. He tried to grab at his attacker, and his free wrist was grabbed and forced above his head as well. Knees pushed against his thighs, pushing them against the wall, and booted feet stepped on his, effectively pinning him to the wall.

He stared up into his attacker's face, and saw without surprise, Yami's smirking face looking down on him. "Foolish little Hellhound." Yami said, his deep voice amused and disgusted. "If you want to blend into a crowd, you need to act like a normal human being."

"And what does that mean?" Yugi asked, attempting to twist free.

"You walk like a hound, talk like a hound, and act like a hound." Yami said. "Never once did your facial expression change while you were speaking to me. I am not so long gone from the Hellhounds that I don't remember how they act. Now, why are you looking for me?"

"I am to bring you back to the Overlord." Yugi said, seeing no reason to lie about his intentions, now that his target was aware of him.

"Hmph. So they send a boy out to fetch the second best hound they ever had." Yami snorted condescendingly.

"Not anymore you're not." Yugi replied. Yami looked down at him in surprise before a slow smile crept across his face.

"So, you're the new Beta we've been hearing about." He laughed. "You may have been taught everything I was, but I have learned new things out here in the real world, things they can never teach you." He brought his face up close to Yugi's, inhaling softly. "Such a shame. A beautiful young thing like you, wasted on the Hellhounds." Yugi said nothing, allowing his face to betray nothing. "You really don't know what you're missing Yugi."

Before Yugi could reply, Yami had bridged the short distance between them and locked their lips together. Only his training kept him from reacting in surprise, though his mind went into complete overdrive as his target playfully nibbled at his bottom lip. Though his mind could do only so much, and he could feel his body temperature rising as the unfamiliar, pleasurable sensation of Yami's lips against his overrode his senses.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Yami pulled away, smirking at him. "Such a shame." He sighed, and then his grip on Yugi's wrists tightened. "Listen well, little hound. I will not be taken back to that madman, so you may as well pack up now and go home. But, if you do intend to stay, I'd suggest working on your acting skills. This is a dangerous town, and they don't like hounds here."

With that he released Yugi and was gone in the blink of an eye. Yugi searched for any clue as to where he had gone, but found nothing. He almost let out a growl of frustration, but his conditioning prevented it. Instead he walked back to his motel room, instantly strategizing new ways to take down his tricky target.

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Wolf: Review plz!


	3. Misfortune

Wolf: This chapter features some gory and mildly disturbing scenes. If you have a problem with such things, I wouldn't read this if I were you. Other than that, same disclaimers apply. Enjoy!

Yugi sat in his motel room, drawing up plans on how to capture Yami. He was annoyed; he'd never had someone beat him so easily, not since his beginning years in training. He thought his best option would really have to be a sneak attack. Knock Yami out so he couldn't fight back, restrain him and then make him talk. Make him talk about the rebel base.

"That won't be easy." He told himself. It was one of the peculiar habits that training had never been able to break him of, talking to himself. He was wise enough only to do it when no one else was around though, and so he no longer got punishments for doing it.

Back to the problem of Yami telling him about the rebels; he couldn't use conventional methods of interrogation. Interrogation usually meant giving the subject copious and increasing amounts of pain to get them to talk. Yami was Hellhound trained, it didn't matter that he had been out of that position for years; he would still not bend to pain.

That left drugs. Yugi was aware that the drugs that were meant to be truth serums were highly unstable and still in their testing phase, but they were his best bet. One pill wouldn't kill someone as strong as Yami, and if the drug had some unpleasant side effects, well, that was the price for turning traitor, now wasn't it?

He set out immediately, hiding his belongings and locking the door again. The Hellhound unit base was a couple of blocks away. It was only dawn, but someone would be up. He'd put his badge in his pocket, so that he could be identified and not kicked out.

The streets were quiet, long shadows cast on the dusty ground by the rising sun. It was barely day and already the air burned with heat. Yugi didn't notice the heat though, not as anything more than a trifling annoyance anyway.

As he walked along he suddenly became aware that it was far too quiet. He paused, and looked around. There were no signs of life, no sounds of stirring or getting ready for the day. He started walking again, his senses on high alert. It would be foolish of anyone to even try an attack on him, but this area was not known for its wisdom.

All the sudden a small, sharp pain, like the sting of a bee, made itself known in Yugi's neck. It was nothing, pain was nothing, but Yugi lifted his hand anyways. His fingers brushed tufted feathers and he pulled, looking at the object that had been imbedded in his neck. It was a dart.

As he looked at it he could feel the effects starting to manifest in his body. He felt slightly dizzy, and woozy, but he was a Hellhound. One little sedative dart was not going to take him down. Another little pain attacked his shoulder. He looked around; he was being attacked from the shadows. If he couldn't see his enemy, the best option would be to get away, so he began to run.

But as he did so he found men in front of him, blocking his path in all directions, surrounding him, as he felt another sting, this time in his back. His vision was becoming blurred, but that did not stop him from aiming a kick at the man closest to him. Unfortunately the drug flowing through his veins slowed him down and he was easily knocked back. Another sting, this time in his throat against his Adam's apple, made his knees buckle and his vision darken further.

Still, he fought, struggling to rise as the circle of unknown men closed in around him, trapping him. As he got to his feet, swaying, a man with blonde hair and dark sunglasses walked up; smirking as he levelled the dart gun he was carrying at Yugi's chest.

"Say goodnight." He taunted, pulling the trigger. All Yugi felt was the barest prick of the dart before the world slid away and he tumbled into darkness.

He woke up with a vicious, pounding headache and roiling nausea in his gut. He kept silent, trying to get a sense of where he was. The first thing he realized was that he was naked. The second was that he was tied down. His ankles and knees were strapped to the ground, and his arms spread to either side of whatever surface his upper body was resting on horizontally. The position was that he was on his knees, kneeling, with his upper body flat against some horizontal surface, his head dangling over the edge of the surface, leaving his back completely exposed.

The nausea in his gut coiled up through his throat, and though he tried to force it back down, a short wave of bile was ejected painfully from his body. "Hey, Keith! The bitch is awake!" A grating voice said somewhere above him. Footsteps echoed toward him and suddenly his hair was grabbed and his head roughly jerked up to look into the face of the blonde man from before.

"Well, looks like we can start playing then." He said with a sadistic little laugh. "Got your little badge, says you're the Beta." He laughed again. "I caught myself one of the Overlord's little pets!" Yugi's expression didn't change, and he refused to rise to Keith's bait. Keith scowled, not liking his captive's stoic demeanour. "Let's see how long it takes for a bitch to break." He sneered.

He walked away for a moment and then came back, shoving a ball gag into Yugi's mouth. "As much as I'd like to hear you scream, we don't need any of your bitch friends coming to see what's going on." Yugi shook his head, trying to get rid of the foul-tasting rubber ball in his mouth. Keith only chuckled sinisterly at his futile struggles.

Keith moved out of Yugi's line of vision, but Yugi continued to fight the bonds that held him. A loud 'CRACK' rent the air and a line of burning, stabbing pain was etched into his back. Yugi only jerked slightly, his training preventing him from showing pain. He managed to turn his head back enough to see Keith standing over him with a whip.

The whip descended again and again, carving line after line of burning agony in Yugi's back, until his entire back felt like it was on fire. Apparently not content with his victim's failure to respond, Keith moved lower, the whip descending on Yugi's bare buttocks, thighs, calves and the bottoms of his feet. Yugi bit down hard on the ball in his mouth, refusing to forget his training.

Keith kept whipping him until every inch of his exposed body was covered in bloody welts. "Well, should have known you wouldn't break that easily." Keith panted. Yugi put his head down, working to ignore the pain running through his body, as he heard Keith rummaging around behind him.

Just as he thought he was getting some control over the pain, he was drenched in water, salt water. The salt got in the welts, stinging like a thousand needles all over his body. Still, he refused to give in, biting down harder and clenching his fists, forcing the pain back. He heard Keith grunt in annoyance and then move off again.

He heard a match being struck, and then the sound of someone taking a drag on a cigarette. The footsteps approached him again and this time the pain was a real burn, a small dot of it burning into the back of his clenched left fist. Keith was using the cigarette to burn him. The twisted man burned various parts of his body, his back, his buttocks, his legs, his feet, but even so, Yugi refused to show any sort of pain.

"Well, this is starting to become boring." Keith commented with an annoyed sigh. "But, I think I got one last little trick up my sleeve, and if this doesn't make you scream, I don't know what will."

Yugi suddenly felt big, calloused, hard hands on his ass cheeks, pulling them apart. He jerked in the hold, trying to get away still as he wondered what Keith was doing. Something hard and blunt rubbed at his entrance, and just as he realized what Keith meant to do, Keith snapped his hips forward, impaling Yugi. Yugi's teeth clamped down hard, locking in the scream that tried to break free at the feeling of delicate flesh tearing from the violent entry.

Keith moved in and out of Yugi, making loud, obnoxious grunting sounds as he fucked the tiny Hellhound. Yugi felt warm wetness slide down his thighs and just knew that he was being torn on the inside. He'd never been in this kind of pain before; he felt as though he was being torn apart with every hard, quick thrust into his body.

A scream rose in his throat, choking him as he struggled to force it back down. It was no use though, any moment he was going to snap and scream. Part of him wanted to do it, just so that the pain would hopefully end, but he refused to give in, even now.

Just as he was about to snap, the door banged open and a deep, furious roar echoed in the close air of the room. Keith was ripped away from him, the pain subsiding only a little. Yugi let his head dangle as the sounds of battle continued behind him. Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes and he found himself making small, muffled grunting noises of pain as he feebly fought against the restraints.

He didn't notice that the sounds had ended until a hand touched his head. He jerked away, yanking at the restraints on his wrists. "Shh, Yugi. It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you." He'd know that deep voice anywhere. His face was lifted and his blurred eyes took in the sight of Yami crouching in front of him, looking over him with sorrow and horror.

Yami gently removed the ball gag from Yugi's mouth, allowing him to breathe better. "You poor creature." Yami whispered, lightly stroking Yugi's face with one of his thumbs. "I told you to be careful, didn't I?"

Yugi didn't answer, he couldn't, otherwise he might start screaming, or crying. The pain in his body swelled until it overrode his senses and then everything went mercifully dark.

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Wolf: Review plz!


	4. Rebel Base

Wolf: I own nothing!

Yami watched as Yugi's gorgeous violet eyes rolled back into his head. The young Hellhound's body went slack as he slipped into unconsciousness. Yami crouched there for a moment, still cupping Yugi's face in his hands. His thumbs brushed away the tiny tears crowding the corners of Yugi's eyes, clumping the soft, long lashes.

A low growl rumbled out of his throat. He'd already killed Keith, and everyone else in the room when he'd first come in, blinded by a killing rage at the sight of the small boy trapped, bleeding and being raped by that son-of-a-bitch.

They'd had it coming for some time. Keith and his gang were known troublemakers in this area, and their antics were drawing too much attention. He'd followed a couple of Keith's gang after hearing them brag about bagging a 'bitch' in one of the bars. Yami knew that 'bitch' was slang for Hellhound, and so had followed them back to where they were torturing Yugi, and then killed everyone there.

He sighed, getting his rage under control and undoing the restraints on Yugi's arms. He then moved around to Yugi's back to undo his legs. He snarled softly at the blood around the boy's anus and still dripping down his thighs. He found a water bottle and a relatively clean cloth and set to work cleaning Yugi's body of the blood from the welts and from his rape.

When he was done that he found a tarp in the corner and wrapped Yugi's prone body in it carefully. Even with his care Yugi jerked and let out a small whimper, but thankfully did not wake. He walked down the dusty streets, making sure to stick to the alleyways to avoid getting caught.

He could have just taken Yugi to the Hellhound base in town and just forgotten the whole thing. But... for one thing Yugi would be humiliated, punished and either demoted or dismissed from the Hellhounds all together, or perhaps, even executed. For another thing Yami found he felt a little affection towards the smaller male, a kinship with the hound that had taken his place. He wanted to see if he could break Yugi of his training, show him that the Overlord was wrong. He wanted to see those beautiful violet eyes filled with life, instead of dull and empty.

He carried Yugi to the car that was waiting for him just outside the town. It was an all-terrain Jeep, fitted for the worst of desert conditions. It was an old beast, beginning to rust in some places, but it had gotten him where he needed to go for the last few years and he felt an attachment to it, meaning he refused to even think about getting a new one.

He placed Yugi in the passenger seat, buckling him in and tucking the tarp more securely around him. He took a moment to have a really good look at Yugi's face. He had pale skin that was soft to the touch, and cherubic cheeks, giving him the appearance of a young child. His hair was strangely similar to Yami's own hair, although it lacked the golden 'lightning bolts' in the black of his spikes.

He sighed, getting in and starting the vehicle. It roared to life with a cough and a growl. Yami checked to make sure the loud sound and the rattling had not woken up Yugi, but the little Hellhound was out like a light. They bumped along through the desert, until they came to a series of cliffs. These cliffs were known for being treacherous, so people avoided them. Not Yami.

One of the rebel bases was down in these cliffs, all one had to do, was find the right way down. Yami got out of the Jeep, making sure that no one was around to see him, and then pulled the branches of a large prickle bush aside, revealing a hidden platform of metal. The top of the platform was hidden by a natural outcropping of the cliff above it, and screened in all other sides by the prickle bushes and other vegetation and rocks.

When he had the Jeep positioned on the platform he honked the horn and the platform let out a shuddering groan and began to lower down to the cliff floor below. Its passage took it into an underground cavern as black as night and through a steel door set in the cavern to prevent intruders from getting in.

The lights came on as the Jeep touched the floor of the cave. It was cooler down there than it was on the surface in the hot sun. The walls of the cavern were worn smooth, far smoother than even eons of erosion could accomplish. The cavern was part of an intricate network of caverns and open pockets of valleys that was once a military base in the years before the Overlord's reign.

Yami turned off the engine and exited the car, nodding a hello at the operator as he moved around to the passenger side. He opened the passenger door and lifted Yugi out bridal-style, cradling his head against the crook of his arm. He walked with the unconscious boy in his arms, heading for the infirmary.

"Isis." He greeted the young woman bustling about the infirmary. She was tall and dark-skinned, a native of Egypt. She had long dark hair and beep brown eyes, which widened at the sight of Yami's burden.

"Oh, my." She gasped when Yami laid Yugi face down on the examining table and pulled the tarp off of him. "What on earth has been done to this poor boy?" She asked, inspecting the welts and burns and general damage.

"He was tortured. Keith's gang got a hold of him, figured they'd have 'fun' with a captive Hellhound."

"Hellhound?" Isis repeated, staring at the prone boy in surprise. "But he's so young."

"I'm not sure he's as young as you think, and trust me, he's a Hellhound." Yami replied. "I would like you to treat his wounds, and then I'm taking him to a containment cell."

"Is that really necessary?" Isis asked.

"Yes. As soon as he wakes up, he'll be looking to escape, and take me with him. He has to be restrained."

"If he's so dangerous, why bring him here in the first place?" Isis was confused.

"I want to see if we can rehabilitate him, like I was able to be rehabilitated." Yami answered. "I just don't like the idea of him living that kind of life. I want to show him what life is really like." Isis' face softened.

"Do you really think you can change his mind?" She asked.

"My mind was changed, wasn't it?" He replied. Isis smiled and nodded.

"And you've gone on to direct this rebellion." She added. She looked over the various wounds and sighed softly in dismay. "There's not much I can do. I can bind his feet so that they won't be so sore when he walks, but the burns and welts will have to heal on their own. I can give you a salve that will help with the healing, but that's it."

"What about injuries from his rape?" Yami asked.

"They're all inside, and will heal on their own fairly quick, though he will be in pain for a few days."

"He's a Hellhound, pain is nothing to them." Yami reminded her.

"Still..." Isis murmured, gently massaging balm into the wounds on Yugi's body. "What's his name?"

"He was calling himself Yugi when I met him, but I don't know if that's his name from before the Hellhounds got him, or if it's just a name they came up with for his undercover mission."

"What mission was that?" Isis asked idly.

"Bringing me back to the Overlord, so that he could 're-educate' me." Yami snorted derisively. "I'd rather die than be a mindless pawn ever again." He snarled fiercely. Isis patted his shoulder reassuringly. "Do you think I could get a small supply of mild sedatives as well?" Yami asked her.

"How mild?"

"Enough to make him slow and sluggish, but not enough to knock him out or compromise his awareness of his surroundings."

"Hmm, you mean to keep him quiet." Isis guessed.

"Only if he decides to make trouble." Yami replied. "I think I can handle him most of the time, so long as I keep my wits about me."

"I see." Isis sighed and stepped away from Yugi. "Well, that's about all I can do for him for now." Yami thanked her and pulled a pair of black shorts onto Yugi's limp body before picking him up again and carrying him out of the infirmary.

He carried the unconscious boy down to the lower levels of the cavern. It was a little cooler down here still from the caves above, but not uncomfortable. The cells had steel doors with a small, barred window near the top. The inside had a comfortable cot with restraints attached to it for unruly prisoners. Yami hoped he wouldn't have to use those on Yugi, but thought that he probably would.

Carefully he laid Yugi face down on the cot, turning his head so that his face was to the side. He pulled a blanket from underneath the cot and covered Yugi with it, making sure that he was comfortable. He allowed himself the brief luxury of combing his fingers through Yugi's soft, unruly mane of hair.

"I hope I can make you understand." He whispered. He leaned down and kissed Yugi on the cheek and then exited the cell, locking it behind him.

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Wolf: Review plz!His


	5. Touches

Wolf: I own nothing!

Yugi came back to awareness slowly, painfully and any hope that what had happened was simply a dream evaporated as the pain truly hit. The pain wasn't as intense as when Keith had been torturing him, but it was still like being burned all over the back of his body. His lower back screamed with pain as he slowly eased himself into a sitting position, and his anal area still felt ripped.

He looked around, focusing on his surroundings instead of the pain. The walls were a sandy brown stone, worn smooth. Dim, bluish lights were imbedded in the wall, giving off light without being harsh on the eyes. There were no windows, and the one door was thick steel. Yugi had little doubt that it would be locked if he tried to open it.

"Tables turned." He whispered to himself, the sound echoing slightly off the rounded walls. The last thing he could remember was Yami's face. The former Beta must have taken him captive, for what purpose, Yugi did not know. He didn't really care, though, his only focus was to be how he was going to get out of wherever he was.

He stood up, ignoring the twinges of pain in his backside as he did so, and tried to walk around. He was limping some, but quickly forced himself to walk normally. As he suspected, the door was locked tight. He stood on tiptoes to peer out of the little window in the door, and saw nothing but a hallway with doors to other cells.

He walked around the perimeter of the room, feeling along the walls to see if he could find any weaknesses. There were none, it was just solid stone. It was also rather cool in the cell, and because there were no vents of any kind in there, Yugi guessed that they were underground somewhere. Did Yami bring him to the rebel base?

He started as he heard footsteps in the hallway outside. Sliding quietly close to the door he held himself in a battle stance, ready to take down whoever came in. The bolt on the door slid back with a clang and Yugi tensed his muscles, preparing to swing. As the door opened he swung out a foot, hoping to catch his visitor by surprise.

However, he was the one taken by surprise as his foot was grabbed and then shoved to the side. Before he could recover he found himself shoved to the floor, knees pinning his thighs down and hands on his wrists, anchoring them beside his head. He stared up at Yami, and unexpectedly felt a spark of irrational fear that Yami was going to do the same thing that Keith had done.

"Let me go." He ordered, working to keep his voice neutral. His mind clamoured with fearful thoughts and images from his rape and he found his heart rate beginning to speed up.

"Not until I can be assured that you will not attack me." Yami replied, shifting his weight and bringing his face closer to Yugi's. Yugi began to squirm, unable to completely ignore the fear in his mind anymore.

"Let me go!" He ordered again, and was ashamed to hear a note of panic in it. Something strange flickered in Yami's eyes at the sound.

"Relax Yugi, I'm not going to hurt you." Yami's voice was low, soothing, and Yugi didn't trust it one bit.

"I don't trust you." He said.

"If I had wanted to hurt you, I would have done so when we first met, or let Keith continue with what he had been doing." Yami explained. "I may be a hard man, but I'm not cruel. Now, will you fight me if I let you go?"

Yugi weighed his options and then shook his head. He had lost the tactical advantage and would need to re-assess his situation before trying again. Besides, he was too sore to fight back anymore, not that he would ever admit that kind of weakness. Yami smiled slightly and got off him, offering a helping hand.

"I'm going to need you to lie down on your stomach." He told Yugi. Yugi tensed at the order.

"Why?" He demanded, keeping his voice from shaking. Yami stepped back and picked up a tray from the doorway.

"I have a salve, for your injuries. It has to be rubbed in the wounds. It will ease the pain and help them heal quicker." Yami explained. Yugi considered that for a moment, the pain he could deal with, but he supposed it was better if his injuries healed quickly. Keeping Yami in his sights he laid down on the cot once more on his stomach.

Yami dipped his fingers in the salve and then spread it over his hands. He hesitated a moment before placing them on Yugi's skin, not sure how the boy would react. He was obviously scared of being violated again, though he hid it well, and Yami did not want to have to wind up having to tie him down in order to help him.

He gently touched his fingertips to the skin of Yugi's back. He felt the muscles tense and then a small quiver wrack the small body. He moved his fingers in gentle circles, massaging the skin while he worked the salve into the welts. As he did so he felt Yugi relax just the tiniest bit. His hands drifted down, to where the shorts impeded his ministrations and he let out an internal sigh.

He hooked his fingers beneath the waistband of Yugi's shorts and slowly started to pull them down. "What are you doing?" Yugi cried, his control breaking in his panic. Yami reached one hand up to stroke his hair.

"You have welts on your lower body that need tending to as well." He explained quietly. "I will not hurt you the way Keith did. I think rapists are the lowest of the low." He growled. "But, if you are not comfortable with me touching you down there, then I will not go there."

Yugi was silent for a long moment, before deciding that he wasn't about to let Yami hold this fear over him. "Continue." He said in a stony voice. Yami gazed at him a moment before yanking the shorts down. Yugi flinched slightly in response and quivered a little at the touch of hands on his buttocks. He relaxed as Yami's skilled hands worked the salve into the welts on his lower body. The salve had a cooling sensation that eased the pain in his body considerably.

"Is Yugi your real name?" Yami asked suddenly. Yugi was too startled to answer for a moment.

"Hellhounds do not have names, you should know that." He said.

"You had a name before you became a Hellhound." Yami told him.

"I've always been a Hellhound." Yugi answered, starting to feel mildly confused.

"They must have gotten you fairly young then, to have no memory of your family." Yami murmured. "Yugi, Hellhounds are not born, they are made. Hellhounds don't breed, so the Overlord finds children with the right personality traits and takes them from their families to be trained."

"We live a better life as Hellhounds." Yugi replied.

"Better? I don't know about that. You don't have to worry about poverty, sure, but you miss out on so much."

"Like what?" Yugi demanded.

"Hmm, where to start..." Yami mused. "How about the feeling of dancing without abandon underneath the stars with the beat of the drums reverberating in your heart? How about the feel of salty spray as you dive into the sea?" Yugi sat up as Yami spoke, brow furrowed slightly in confusion. "How about the joy of winning a game that has no purpose whatsoever?" Yami leaned forward, catching Yugi's chin in one hand. "And what about the unforgettable, unexplainably beautiful feeling of falling in love?"

"Emotion is-"

"Don't say it." Yami chided. "If emotions were useless, why do we have them?" Yugi could find no answer to this. Yami pulled the tray from behind him, revealing that there was a glass of water, a small loaf of bread and slices of orange. "I brought you food." Yugi looked at it and then away, disinterested. "You need to eat Yugi." Yami stated fiercely. "I have to go now, but I will come back later, and if that food isn't eaten by the time I do, I will force feed you."

Yami stood up and headed to the door, keeping a careful eye on Yugi as he did so. Yugi didn't move from his position on the cot though and merely stared at Yami as he left the cell, closing the door and locking. Only then did he touch his chin, feeling the residual heat from Yami's fingers.

Why exactly did he feel shivery when he heard Yami's voice? Why did his touch make him feel warmer than natural? Yugi sat quietly on his cot, ignoring the food, contemplating why Yami's actions threatened to tear down all Yugi's years of training.

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Wolf: Review plz!


	6. Small Steps

Wolf: I own nothing!

"Hey, Yami!" A tall young man with messy blonde hair and honey-coloured eyes waved at Yami as he was heading back down to the cell block to check on Yugi.

"Hello, Joey." Yami smiled at the younger boy. He had been with the rebels for about two years, ever since Yami rescued him from being beaten by Hellhounds for stealing food. Joey had run away from an abusive father many years before and had lived the streets. He'd been in and out of detention cells, and beaten many times for stealing. He certainly had no love of Hellhounds and so had quite readily agreed to join the rebellion.

"What are you up to?" Joey asked, falling in step with Yami.

"I was going down to the cell block to check on Yugi, the Hellhound I brought here earlier." Yami explained.

"Oh, yeah, that's right. The one that's supposed to be your replacement, right?" Yami nodded. "What exactly are you planning to do with him? I mean if you were going to kill him, you would have just done it in town, so..."

"I want to see if I can convince him that the Overlord is wrong, and that being a Hellhound isn't all it's cracked up to be." Yami replied.

"How come? I mean you've never done anything like this before." Joey pointed out. Yami sighed.

"You'll understand if you see him." He said. "I may need your help with him anyways, so you can come along with me." Joey nodded and happily trotted by Yami's side, making Yami smile again. Joey often reminded him of a puppy; loyal, friendly and slightly bumbling.

Yami had a thin bit of surgical tubing, a funnel and a bottle of liquid meal supplement. Joey looked at them curiously as they walked through the caves, but didn't ask about them. When they got to the cell door Yami made Joey stand back as he unlocked and opened it. It seemed that Yugi was not in the mood for an escape attempt and was simply sitting cross-legged on the floor. The tray was sitting beside him, untouched.

"Oh, Yugi." Yami sighed. Yugi looked up at him, his face blank, but still somehow able to convey defiance. "Joey, I'm going to need you to help me tie him down." He told the confused boy standing behind him.

"Huh?" Joey blinked, looking at Yugi and then at Yami.

"There are straps attached to the cot, use them to tie his feet down for me." Yami explained. Joey moved hesitantly closer to Yugi, still looking perplexed.

"But he's so little." He murmured. Yami rolled his eyes and gripped Yugi's wrists, pushing him down on his back onto the mattress. Yugi instantly began to fight, struggling to free himself from Yami's grip. This snapped Joey out of his daze and he took hold of Yugi's legs, using the straps to pin them down to the bed while Yami did the same to Yugi's wrists.

Even tied down Yugi struggled, arching his body up as he fought the bonds that held him. He clamped his mouth shut as Yami picked up the thin tube. Yami only pried his jaws open with strong, but gentle, fingers and pushed the tube down his throat and down into his stomach. When Yami was satisfied it was in, he put the funnel in the open end of the tube and began to pour the meal supplement down it.

"He's shivering." Joey said softly, voice barely above a whisper. Yami looked down in surprise and saw that Yugi was indeed shaking just the barest bit. His wide amethyst eyes were glazed over in terror, and Yami realized that he must associate being tied down with the torture that he endured. For a Hellhound to show this much tension meant that Yugi was seriously traumatized by the event.

"Hey, little guy, we're not going to hurt you." Joey said in a gentle tone. The violet eyes shifted to look at him and they hardened somewhat. "Once we're done here, we'll let you go. You just gotta stop fighting us, okay?" Joey offered him a friendly smile, which faded somewhat when Yugi gave him nothing in return.

"Done." Yami said after a few minutes, removing the tube and leaning over to undo the straps on Yugi's wrists. Joey did the same for his ankles and was nearly kicked in the head as Yugi rapidly rolled off the cot and slammed himself against the wall, gazing at the two of them balefully. He was breathing heavily and his teeth were clenched tight.

Yami slowly slid over to where Yugi sat all scrunched up, tense with fear and anger and humiliation. Yugi jerked away as Yami brushed the golden bangs away from his face. Yami caught his chin though and pressed a delicate kiss to Yugi's flushed cheek.

"I'm sorry about that." He murmured against Yugi's warm skin. He kissed his cheek again and then stood up, walking backwards out of the cell.

"He seemed really freaked out about being tied down." Joey commented.

"He was tied up, tortured and then raped." Yami explained. "It's obvious he's experiencing trauma from the experience. Hopefully, that will be all it takes for him to cooperate, even if just a little bit. I don't want to have to be fighting him every time I want him to eat." Joey took a look at Yami's worried face and grinned.

"You are completely smitten by him, aren't you?" He teased. Yami tried for a nonchalant shrug.

"He appeals to me." Joey's grin got bigger.

"That would be Yami-code for 'I am totally falling for this kid'." Joey chortled. "That's the real reason you brought him here. You want to see if you can get him to fall in love with you."

"Perhaps." Yami said, but he blushed at the leering grin that Joey levelled at him. "I'm not entirely sure it can be done though."

%&%&%&%

Yami went back later with a bowl of soup and more of the salve. Once again Yugi did not try to attack him, but he pushed himself as far away as he could from Yami, eyes expressionless. "I have the salve again, but you should eat the soup first, before it gets cold."

Yami waited, wondering if Yugi would resist him once again. After a long moment Yugi moved, walking over to pick up the bowl of soup and starting to eat from it. Yami let out an inaudible sigh of relief as he watched Yugi's delicate manner of eating; barely opening his lips to allow the spoon in and then completely closing his lips over it while pulling it out again, free of soup. It was cute.

When Yugi was finished, Yami gestured for him to lie down. It took a moment, but Yugi finally lay down on his stomach, allowing Yami to once again rub the soothing salve into his wounds. The combination of the gentle motions, his full stomach and the adrenaline of the day finally wearing off was making him tired and he found himself fighting to keep his eyes open.

Yami noticed and chuckled slightly. "You can go to sleep. You've had a long day." Yugi forced his eyes back open, refusing to give in. "The lights in the room will be turning off anyways soon." Yami continued. "We turn the room lights off at night to save energy, only the hall lights stay on." Yugi didn't say anything in reply.

When Yami was done with his task he softly touched his lips to the back of Yugi's neck and then exited the room. Only when Yugi knew he was gone did he reach out a hand to touch the spot where those warm lips had touched him. No one had ever touched him that way, with such intimacy. It couldn't be real, it was just a head game, designed to make him crack. He would not though.

Soon the lights in the room turned off, just as Yami promised. Yugi found himself disoriented in the total darkness, but pale, soft light filtered in through the window in the door from the hallway outside, offering him just enough light to find his blanket and cocoon himself in it. There was no point in not sleeping, he would feel sharper after a night's rest.

A ways away Yami was reading by the light of a small, battery powered lamp by his bedside. He stared at the page without really seeing the words on, thinking about Yugi. He needed some way to make him understand, but how?

His eyes traveled around the room, roving around restlessly until they fell upon the pile of books in the corner. There were many volumes about governments, anecdotes, information, and much more, since Yami was essentially running a government here, he wanted to understand how to create one that would operate seamlessly.

He would take some of the books to Yugi. The young Hellhound would not be used to being idle and so would be glad of a distraction. Once Yami found suitable restraints he would allow Yugi to wander around with him, and take a look at how things were running here, how much better than ran.

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Wolf: Review plz!


	7. So Close, So Far

Wolf: I own nothing!

Yugi was awoken by a shake on his shoulder. Instantly he was up on his knees, striking out with a fist. It was caught and as he blinked away the blurriness in his eyes, he realized it was Yami who was holding him.

"Fast reflexes." Yami commented idly. "Though that's to be expected. Didn't expect you to be such a deep sleeper though. I'm awake as soon as something near me makes an unfamiliar sound, personally."

"Because of your training?" Yugi asked, annoyed that Yami would have been trained like that.

"No, paranoia." Yami chuckled. "I spent the first few months after I escaped from the Hellhounds hiding in any hole I could find. I was so paranoid that I'd jump awake at any little noise. As you can imagine, I got very little sleep. I've never quite gotten over that paranoia."

"Oh." Yugi watched as Yami pulled a tray with some oatmeal, fruit and orange juice for him from behind his back. "Why are you bothering to feed me?" He asked quietly.

"I'm not cruel, Yugi." Yami replied, touching Yugi's cheek briefly. Yugi lifted a hand to brush Yami's touch away.

"Why do you keep touching me?" He demanded.

"I like touching you, you're skin is soft. And... you look so much like me that I'm not always sure if you're real." Yami chuckled.

"What about the kissing?" Yami smirked at him.

"I'll let you figure that one out on your own." Yami pulled out a small pile of books from behind his back as well. "Here, I figure you'll get bored having nothing to do all day."

%&%&%&%

When Yami returned to check on Yugi he found the young Hellhound poring over one of the books, with a couple more on the floor. He smiled to himself; they were all about government and he hoped they would make Yugi understand a little bit.

"Enjoying yourself?" Yami asked. Yugi looked up at him, blinking slightly.

"There used to be more than one government." He said. "That seems illogical. Isn't it better that we are all united under one government?"

"Depends on the government." Yami sat down cross-legged on the ground. "If the government is fair, then yes, but the Overlord is anything but fair."

"Why do you say that?"

"You saw what it was like in the city, most people can barely afford to feed themselves on the wages their given, and even then they have to nearly work themselves to death to get anywhere. Business owners are taxed high and not allowed to keep most of their saving for their own personal needs." Yami paused. "There is plenty of wealth in the world, but only a select amount of people are privy to it, is that fair?"

Yugi didn't answer him, so Yami forged on. "Did you know that four years ago the Overlord used a nuclear bomb on what was once England?" Yugi looked up at him, momentarily showing him a startled face before it turned to stone once again. "There was a rebel faction there, nearly half the city was in on it, and the Overlord just levelled it."

"They deserved it then." Yugi yelped as his shoulders were roughed grabbed and he found himself staring into Yami's livid eyes.

"Deserved it? Innocent lives, people who had done nothing but try and live their lives, women, children, innocents, they deserved that kind of death?" Yami demanded through clenched teeth. "Even before the Overlord took over, they didn't use those kinds of weapons, even if they had them."

"They didn't?" Yami released Yugi and slid back.

"Once, a long time ago, they did, just once, and when they saw the kind of devastation it did, no one used them again, even if they had them. They would threaten, but nothing came out of it." He said dully. "The Overlord uses them to erase anything he finds even mildly threatening, even at the cost of millions of innocent lives."

"I didn't know that." Yugi said. Yami shrugged his shoulders.

"The only reason he's been able to stay in power so long is because he rules by intimidation, and anyone who's a threat gets eliminated. This world is run by a dictatorship and if you read those you should know that the people will not tolerate that for too long." Yami said. "For once, don't think like a Hellhound. Think like a human being, and think of how it would feel to know that tomorrow you might not have enough to eat, or you could die for some insignificant thing, and ponder if that's right or not."

%&%&%&%

Yugi had been in the rebel base for almost a week. He had little to do but talk to Yami and read the books that he brought him. Little tendrils of doubts were creeping into his mind, though he tried to force them back. At night he found himself having nightmares of Keith raping him and would wake in a cold sweat, a scream locked in his throat.

Yami noticed that Yugi was becoming increasingly erratic in his behaviour. Sometimes he would allow the small touches and kisses that Yami would bestow on him, other times he would lash out, eyes filled with terror he refused to accept. He was trying to hold in his tormented emotions at being beaten and raped and it was playing havoc with his head.

Yami wanted so badly to make Yugi feel better, but the boy would not allow himself to give into his emotions and just vent. It would help him to move past things, but Yugi was just too stubborn to listen to reason. Yami pondered for a long time until a brilliant idea hit him.

"I have a surprise for you." Yami said as he entered Yugi's cell. Yugi spared him a disinterested look. Yami pulled the straightjacket from behind his back. "Stand up." He ordered Yugi. Yugi looked at it and then him, and shook his head. "We can make this easy, or hard, and you know that I'll just win if you try to fight back."

Yugi's eyes narrowed just slightly, but he stood and allowed Yami to put the straightjacket on him. Yami then made him sit down again to shackle his ankles in such a way that he could only take small steps at a time. Yami helped him to stand again and led him out of the cell.

Yami first gave Yugi a tour of the base, showing him the various locations in the site. "You don't worry that I could take this information back to the Overlord?" Yugi asked, eying the rebels with as much wariness as they regarded him. They were a mixed bunch, all nationalities, all walks of life. Some had scars, all had this determined light in their eyes.

"Even if you somehow did manage to escape, this isn't our only base. And I will not be telling you where the others are." Yami explained. "Now, I have one last place to show you."

Yami led Yugi into the training room, where there was various gym equipment set up. Yami closed the one door and led Yugi over to a punching bag in the corner. He undid the shackles on his ankles and then took off the straightjacket.

"What are you doing?" Yugi asked.

"I know that you're having a hard time dealing what Keith did to you, so I want to help." Yami gestured to the punching bag. "Pretend that this is Keith, and do whatever you feel like you wish you could have done to him to it." Yugi looked at Yami and then at the punching bag. "Yugi, if you don't find some way to vent how you're feeling, you'll go crazy."

Yugi looked at the punching bag, and then slammed a punch into it. He kicked and pummelled at the bag, uttering hoarse little screams through clenched teeth as he did so. Finally, the punching bag broke, spilling fluff everywhere, under the ferocious beating. Yugi collapsed to his knees, sobbing softly. After a moment he felt warm, strong arms around him.

He didn't flinch away from the embrace, but allowed the comfort in it to soak through him, soothing his anguished mind just a little bit. As he slowly regained his dignity, he realized what a vulnerable position Yami had put himself into.

Quick as a flash he spun around and punched Yami in the temple. Yami's eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped to the floor. Yugi grabbed him in a fireman's carry and hauled him to the door. He opened it and looked around. Seeing no one he stealthily moved through the halls, heading for the platform where the Jeep was.

He strapped Yami into the passenger seat and flipped the switch to make the platform rise. Almost as an afterthought he picked up a GPS on the nearby table and hopped in the Jeep as it began to rise. He got the engine going, and as soon as the Jeep was up top, he was racing across the sand.

He headed straight for the Hellhound base in town, carrying Yami inside. "Get the Overlord on the phone, tell him that Beta has achieved his objective."

"Sir, you can tell him yourself. He's here."

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Wolf: Review plz!


	8. Decisions

Wolf: I own nothing.

Yami came slowly to painful awareness. He had a pounding headache, and could not remember why. He kept his eyes closed, searching his memory for the answer to why his head felt like a bowling ball had been dropped onto it. A vision of a small, but powerful, fist floated behind his eyelids and he growled almost inaudibly. He'd let his guard down, and Yugi had knocked him out.

He realized as he lay there that he had been stripped down to his boxers. He was lying on his back on some cold, hard surface, and his arms had been shackled over his head and his ankles strapped down as well.

"Open your eyes... Yami." The all-too familiar, unwelcome voice spat out his name like it tasted bad. Yami opened one crimson eye to glare hotly into the Overlord's smugly smirking face. Alpha stood beside him, cold blue eyes staring impassively down on Yami. "Well done, Beta. You've proven yourself well."

Yami turned his head to find Yugi standing in the doorway. The young Hellhound showed him a blank face as he stared. Yami couldn't find it in himself to be angry; Yugi was simply following his orders, what he'd been trained to do. So he simply gave the young man a sorrowful look. Yugi looked away from him.

"Now, Yami, now begins your retraining, unless you'd like to rejoin willingly. You'd have to be punished still, but it would be easier." Yami turned his face back to the Overlord and bared his teeth.

"Never. I would rather die than be your brainwashed lackey again." He snarled. The Overlord closed his eyes and sighed heavily in annoyance. He picked up a heavy rawhide whip from a nearby table and held it up, allowing Yami to see as he unravelled it. "You bring this upon yourself."

Yami's teeth clenched as the whip snapped across the skin of his stomach. Old training took over, schooling his face to blankness. The whip came down again and again, and the only sign of pain that Yami gave them was the clenching of his teeth. Eventually, the Overlord seemed to get bored of tormenting him and put down the whip.

"I see you've retained at least some of your skills." He said approvingly. "We have plenty of time to re-educate you though, no rush." He jerked his head and Alpha followed him out of the room, shutting the door and leaving Yami in cold darkness.

%&%&%&%

Yugi had left the room when the Overlord had started whipping Yami. He told himself it was because he had to finish his report, but there was a deeper, more emotional reason for it. He didn't like seeing Yami getting hurt like that.

He shook his head, trying to focus on typing up his report, but it was no use. Yami's gentle, grieving eyes had burned themselves into his memory and he couldn't help the ache that spread at the thought of those sorrowful, beautiful crimson eyes. Yes, beautiful, because that was the only way to describe them.

His mind flicked through his memories of the last week; Yami's gentle hands caressing his face, massaging his wounds, tender touches and brushes of fingers as random as an abstract painter's strokes. The way he'd steal a kiss, on the cheek, the forehead, anywhere Yami could reach. And then there was that first kiss, when he'd been pinned down in the alley, passionate and playful. Yami had called him beautiful then.

Slowly, as Yugi sat there, he was beginning to piece together the reason Yami touched him, the reason Yami wanted to kiss him. Yami wanted to touch him because he wanted to know that he was real, and not some angel or mirage sent to torment him with beauty. He wanted to kiss Yugi, because he wanted to claim him, to have him for his own, to love him.

His doubts and his teachings swirled around inside him, battling for control. He stood up and made his way into the bathroom, gripping the sink with white fingers as he stared at his reflection in the mirror. Stone eyes stared back, but the stone was cracking, little sparkles of the light within peeking through.

"Who am I?" he asked himself in a whisper that seemed too loud in the pristine bathroom, words seeming too dirty to belong in the empty-cleanliness. His eyes offered him no answers though and he turned away again, going to lie down on the bed. His welts hurt some and he missed the feel of Yami's hands on his back, soothing away the pain. He touched his back and closed his eyes, remembering. Eventually he dozed off.

"_Grandpa! Grandpa! Look what I found!" Small hands clutching their prize, a pair of clovers, the first of the season, short, unsteady legs tottering over the grass to a small little cabin. A man, old, with grey hair in large spikes and purple, smiling eyes reaches down, touching the clovers, exclaiming. _

"_Why, aren't they beautiful Yugi!"_

Yugi woke up, seeing the face of the old man from his dream, clear even fully awake. He knew now that there was a before, a before the Hellhounds. He also knew now what he had to do.

As the sun left the sky he walked back through the halls, finding his way to the room where Yami was being kept. He could hear harsh, pained pants coming from inside the room. He peeked in slowly and his eyes widened at the sight. Yami's muscular torso was covered in blood welts and every so often a spasm of pain would wrack the strong body.

"Yami?" He whispered the name softly as he padded to Yami's side. Yami's eyes opened, glassy with pain, too much pain for the injuries that he had. "What did they do to you?"

"Needle...poison..." Yami gasped out, teeth clenching as another wave of pain rolled over him.

"Can you walk?" Yami looked at him in surprise, breathing heavily. He searched Yugi's eyes and then nodded his head. Yugi quickly undid the restraints and helped Yami to stand. The two of them made their way through the base and out into the open air. No one dared stop Yugi, he was Beta, and he wasn't to be questioned by anyone but Alpha and the Overlord himself.

The Jeep was right where it had been left and Yugi started it up with a faint roar. He and Yami winced at the loud sound, but no one came to investigate so they peeled away from the base and into the cold desert night.

"We should be back at the base soon." Yugi assured him.

"No... rebels will have left... you and I gone... other location..." Yami gasped out. He sat up in the seat, clenching his teeth and lowering his head for a moment. "Need me to give directions..." He growled. Yugi looked at him and then nodded. "Head south." Yugi did as he was told and turned the Jeep to the south.

Yami continued to give him directions until Yugi saw that the pain was becoming too much for him. A small oasis beckoned and he steered the Jeep over to it, ignoring Yami's weak protests.

"You're in no condition to keep going." He told Yami as they stopped. "We'll rest here until the poison in your system wears off, okay?"

"Well, I guess I can't argue with the Beta, now can I?" Yami replied playfully.

"I don't think I'm Beta anymore." Yugi replied. "I guess we're both rogues." Yami nodded his head and pulled Yugi down to him, capturing his lips in a bruising kiss. Yugi responded to it this time, grabbing Yami's shoulders and pressing his lips more firmly against his. It felt good, hot, soft and unbelievably passionate.

When they parted they were both panting, and their eyes were heavy-lidded with desires. One understood the desires and what they meant, the other was uncertain and almost afraid of the powerful feelings being evoked inside him.

Yami saw that trace of fear and touched Yugi's cheek. "We have all the time in the world to explore, to make you understand." He said in a whisper, his thumb drifting across Yugi's bottom lip. "All I ask is that you trust me, and I will not ever hurt you, ever."

Yugi closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of Yami's tender touch, so familiar to him now, and comforting now that he was letting go of the training he'd held onto for so long. "I will trust you." Yami smiled and pulled him down into another kiss, this one gentle and more inquisitive. When they were done Yugi found himself lying down on top of Yami while the elder fell into a restless sleep. Yugi breathed in Yami's spicy scent and decided that lying on top of someone wasn't too bad. He fell asleep as he wrapped his arms around Yami.

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Wolf: Review plz!


	9. Return

Wolf: I own nothing!

Yugi woke up as the light of the sun hit his face. He frowned slightly; his pillow seemed to be moving, and overly warm. He opened his eyes to find himself face to face with Yami's sleeping features. He lay for a moment, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he'd actually defied orders and gone rogue from the Hellhounds.

He didn't notice the sound of an engine until it rumbled loud in his ear. He turned around just in time to have a punch clip his jaw, making him stumble back. He looked up into the cold eyes of Alpha. "Did you really think you could get away?" The taller man demanded tonelessly. "Foolish, both of you, betrayers."

Yugi didn't say anything, working on dodging and blocking Alpha's blows. He kept getting driven back, but was finding also that he was able to hold his own. It confused him a little, because he'd always believed that Alpha would be that much better than him, but it seemed like they were pretty evenly matched.

But, as they continued to fight Yugi found himself beginning to flag under the unending rain of blows being dealt upon him. All the sudden a battle cry sounded in the air and Yugi gasped as Alpha was taken down from behind. Alpha tried to dislodge the arms around his neck but he suddenly stiffened and crumpled to the ground, Yami standing over him.

"What did you do?" Yugi asked, gasping slightly.

"I pressed a pressure point on his neck, made him go unconscious. A local taught me how to do it." Yami said with a smirk, taking the gun strapped to Alpha's belt and attaching it to his own. "Just goes to show the Hellhounds can't teach you everything."

"I guess not." Yugi went to stand over Alpha. "What do we do with him? Just leave him here?" Yugi jerked slightly as Yami's arm snaked around his waist, pulling him close.

"I think I have a better idea." Yami replied with a wider smirk. "I think we should do with him what I did with you."

"You want to bring him to the rebels? Are you mad?" Yugi practically yelled, his stoic demeanor shattered by his surprise.

"Perhaps." Yami mused. "But think about it, if we bring him back with us, the Overlord will have lost both his Alpha, and his Beta. He'll look like a fool, and he'll be panicking, unable to find replacements very quickly. Hopefully we can spread some doubt this way."

"So why not just kill him?" Yugi asked.

"Because perhaps we can get him to join us as well." Yami replied. "Little known fact, but Alpha, or Seto as he was once called, despises his adopted father with a passion."

"Then why does he listen to him?" Yugi asked.

"He doesn't know anything else, I guess." Yami shrugged. "My point is, that resentment might be the key to switching him to our side."

"But… how are you going to keep him, you know, from getting away?" Yugi asked.

"Same principle as you, but add a mild sedative to keep him slightly out of it to keep him quiet." Yami replied, wandering over to the Jeep and taking a coil of rope from the back. He hog-tied the unconscious man and settled him into the backseat of the Jeep and headed around to the driver's seat. "You coming?" Yami asked, seeing Yugi still standing there.

Yugi got into the Jeep, sliding in beside Yami. Yami smiled and started the engine, leaving the oasis behind. Yugi jumped a little as one of Yami's hands came down on his thigh. Yami's fingers gently massaged his thigh, soothing him. Yugi liked the feeling of Yami's hand on him and found himself wondering what those hands would feel like on other parts of his body. He felt his face heat up at the thought.

After awhile Yugi found himself staring at huge cliffs. An ancient, sandy-colored temple-like construction sat nestled in the shadow of those looming rock faces, nearly hidden completely from sight by piles of wind-blown sand.

"Where are we?" Yugi asked as Yami halted the Jeep.

"The Valley of the Kings." Yami answered in a hushed voice. "The resting place of the Pharaohs, my ancestors." Yugi looked at him in surprise. "My family has ties to the ancient throne of Egypt, though it has been millennia since a Pharaoh has ruled."

"So you're royalty?" Yami shrugged in response, but he looked about the valley with a mixture of pride and sorrow in his face. Looking at him like that, the sun shining on his face, Yugi thought that he did indeed look like some ancient pharaoh.

"Ah, well, let's get this lump out of the car, shall we?" Yami grinned, jerking his head at Seto's prone form. Together Yami and Yugi retied Seto with his wrist bound behind him and his ankles bound in such a way that he could only shuffle. Yami pinched Seto's earlobe, making the older man jerk. "Wakey-wakey, sunshine." Yami taunted as blue eyes blinked slowly open. He jerked at the sight of Yami smirking above him.

"You." He growled and then realized that he was tied up. "Untie me!"

"You really think I'm going to do that, Seto?" Yami taunted, hauling him to his feet. He took the gun from its holster and pressed it against Seto's back. "Yugi, would you blindfold him please?" Yugi obeyed, tying a stray piece of cloth over Seto's eyes. "Now, march, Seto." Seto grumbled, but Yami pressed the gun into his shoulder blades, so he had no choice but to move.

Yami and Yugi were silent as they trekked into the temple, out of respect for the place that they were in. Yugi looked around in amazement at the various carvings and pictures engraved on the wall, worn and faded from the long millennia. Yami led them to a wall covered in hieroglyphs. He pressed a few in sequence and with a faint rumble a nearby section of wall disappeared into the floor, revealing a stone staircase.

They stepped down it into a corridor made of the native sandstone. He could see tool marks in the stone walls and many other corridors and rooms branched off from the one they walked on. Soft murmurs came from the people they saw walking the halls as they recognized Yami and the two men with him. Yami gave them all nods, but did nothing else, focused on getting Seto to the cell block.

Once he had Seto secured in a cell, and given a low dose of sedative did he smile and chat and receive the embraces, punches and handshakes of his fellows. He explained all that happened, making sure they knew that Yugi was now their ally and friend. When everyone was satisfied he placed a hand on Yugi's lower back, leading him away.

"We need to set you up with a bed." Yami said casually. "And I should find where they've stuck mine. Perhaps we can share a room, some are big enough for two beds. Would you like that?"

"I would like to have you near." Yugi admitted. "It would make me feel more comfortable." Yami chuckled and kissed Yugi's forehead.

"Alright then." They found that Yami's designated room was indeed equipped with two beds, and his pile of books was already set up haphazardly in one of the corners. "Well, this is cozy."

"Yami?" Yugi asked as he sat down on one of the beds, claiming it as his.

"Yes, Yugi?"

"If this valley is the resting place of kings, doesn't that make it kind of sacred? That's what my knowledge of history leads me to believe, anyways."

"You would be correct. It is sacred to the people of Egypt, but we take care not to disturb the rest of the Pharaohs." Yami replied. "When the Overlord started trying to take over, thirty years ago, Egypt was one of the first places he set his eyes upon."

"Why?"

"It was already unstable at the time, unrest was rampant." Yami explained. "To prepare for the inevitable, some of the people began creating secret bases like this all over Egypt, in hopes that they would be able to stay hidden and attack from the shadows. My father was one of those men."

"Your father? What happened to him?" Yugi asked, fearing he already knew the answer.

"He was captured and executed, or so I'm told. He had sent my mother and I far away, so that hopefully we would not be affected by the fighting." Yami went on. "She was killed accidently when the Overlord's soldiers came into our town, and I spent a few years in an orphanage before getting picked up and brought into the Hellhounds." Yami sighed. "After bumming around after leaving the Hellhounds I wound up in Egypt, trying to find any clue from my past. One of the rebels recognized me, not as Beta, but as the son of Ahkanamkanon, and brought me to the rebels. The rest, as they say, is history."

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Wolf: Review plz!


	10. First Meetings

Wolf: I own nothing!

"They watch me." Yugi murmured as he and Yami went to the mess hall for lunch.

"They're wary of you. They know who you are, but they also know the consequences if they try to hurt you." Yami replied, glaring at those who stared. "They trust my judgement, and my military expertise, that is why they made me their leader. That and..." Yami went silent. Yugi frowned slightly, trying to understand why he'd stopped.

He saw the sorrowful look on Yami's face and suddenly understood. "Your father, he was leader as well, wasn't he?" Yami nodded.

"He defended Egypt's freedom until he died. Others say that he said it was our duty to our ancestors to fight for the land we had lived in for so long." Yami explained. "I feel proud to carry on his legacy."

"Listening to you makes me wish I had more to go on than a half-formed dream of my past." Yami raised an eyebrow at him, clearly asking a question. "I had a dream of when I was very little, and I was bringing flowers to an old man, I called him grandpa."

"Do you recall what he looked like?" Yami asked.

"He had the same colour eyes as me, and his hair was all grey, but spiked up like mine is." Yugi said. "But, that's all I can remember."

"It may be enough." Yami mused. "This isn't the only rebel camp you know, there's people like us scattered about the world. I can send out a broadcast with his description to all the other bases, see if we can't find this grandpa of yours."

"You would do that for me?" Yugi asked. "Why?"

"Because, that's what you do when you feel deeply for someone. You want to help them, see them smile." Yami replied. "I want to help you remember your life before and getting your grandfather here will help with that." Yami leaned over and kissed Yugi's nose. Yugi found himself blushing and tried to hide his face. "You're beautiful when you blush." Yami murmured, lifting his chin. "Don't ever hide."

%&%&%&%

"Hey, Joseph!" The tall blonde looked up at his name as he walked the halls. An Egyptian man by the name of Rishid walked up to him, bearing a tray of food. "I'm going to be late to the scavenging crew so do you think you could take this down to the prisoner?"

"Isn't the prisoner the Alpha?" Joey asked. "What if he tries to attack me?"

"He's sedated enough that his reflexes are slow, you'll be able to fight him off no problem if it comes to that." Rishid answered. "Just don't get too close to him, okay?"

"Alright. Happy hunting!" He called as Rishid walked away. He looked at the tray, finding a small loaf of bread, some meaty stew and a glass of water. "Treat prisoners better here than I got treated with the Hellhounds." He muttered to himself. He shrugged and wandered down to the cell block. He found the door to the Alpha's cell and unlocked it.

Alpha, or Seto, as Joey remembered Yami mentioning the man's name, was sitting cross-legged on the cot, staring at the door. The blue eyes were intense, though somewhat clouded from the sedative racing through his veins. Joey shivered at the coldness in the man's eyes.

"What do you want?" Seto demanded, sneering slightly at the messy blonde hair. Joey's nose wrinkled in distaste.

"You should be more polite to the guy that brought you your lunch." He huffed, showing Seto the tray. "If you're not, I might just decide not to give it to you."

"Hmph, a Hellhound can ignore hunger, unlike you civilians."

"Hey! I've been hungry before, I learned how to live with it." Joey protested. "I went for days without food and I was still having to fight and run for my life."

"If you weren't such an obviously a stupid mutt with no pedigree, I would recommend you for the Hellhounds." Seto said. Joey laughed derisively.

"As if I would join them, they're the ones, along with your precious Overlord, that were the reason me and my sister went hungry."

"Life is tough, deal with it." Seto replied callously.

"Oh sure, you can say that. You get all the best food, don't have to worry about where your next meal comes from or how you're going to get help if you get hurt or sick." Joey snarled. "There's no doctors in the real world anymore, no more hospitals. People get sick and die because they don't get the care they need. My sister and I got lucky, we got found by the rebels and taken in, but other kids aren't so lucky, so don't tell me to toughen up, bastard!" Joey slammed the tray down on the ground. "Enjoy your food, asshole."

He stomped out of the cell, simmering angrily. How dare he lecture him about being tough! He had been tough for years, stealing food enough to keep him and his sister alive, enduring beatings and stints in jail, going hungry when there was only enough food for one. He knew exactly what the world was like, and he knew it was the Overlord's fault everything was the way it was.

Seto himself was kind of interesting though. He hadn't thought that a Hellhound would taunt somebody, but it had felt like Seto was trying to test him._ Test all you want buddy, I'm not going to fall for your tricks._ Joey thought to himself. Those blue eyes were actually kind of pretty though, if only they weren't so cold...

"Hey Joey." Joey looked up to find Yami and Yugi walking towards him.

"Hey..." Joey replied, trying for a smile.

"What's the matter, Joey?" Yami asked, not fooled for an instant. Joey's smile disappeared and he chuckled slightly.

"It's that Seto guy, he just rubs me the wrong way." He admitted.

"Yeah, he has the talent for getting under your skin, don't let him get to you." Yami advised.

"Easier said than done." Joey grumbled.

"You don't have to go in their again if you're uncomfortable." Yami told him.

"Nah, I don't want him thinking he got the best of me." Joey said with a fierce grin. "So, you're on our side now, huh?" he asked Yugi.

"I suppose it's more I'm on Yami's side." Yugi explained. "But his ideas make sense to me, and so I will help him bring the world to a better place."

"I suppose that makes sense." Joey said, scratching his head. "I was going to go visit my sister, do either of you want to come along?"

"Why not?" Yami shrugged. "Yugi, would you like to come with us?"

"If you're going then I'll go." Yugi replied, wanting to stick by Yami's side until he was sure of the other people in the base. The three of them walked to one of the other exits and took the Jeep, which had waiting inside the doorway.

"Serenity works for the local governor, the controller of the area of Egypt. We had some strings pulled to get her the job, because I didn't want her involved completely with the rebels." Joey explained as they rode along the banks of the Nile. "Every week I visit her, make sure everything's ok, and just talk to her about what's going on."

"You sound as though you really care about her." Yugi commented. Joey looked at him in surprise.

"She's my sister, my family, of course I care about her." He said in a tone like Yugi was some kind of alien.

"Remember, Yugi's been trained to not care about people, he doesn't have attachments to other human beings. He barely even remembers his own family." Yami said quietly.

"Aww, I'm sorry." Joey said, looking at Yugi through his bangs like a naughty puppy. "I forgot that you were a Hellhound and so you don't react to things like other people."

"It's alright, Joey." Yugi assured Joey. "I'm learning."

"Here we are." Yami suddenly called, stopping the vehicle. A young woman sat with her back to them by the river in a simple white dress.

"Serenity!" Joey called, racing over to her. Serenity got up just as she was engulfed in a massive bearhug, Joey chattering at her happily the whole time. Yugi looked at the two of them, feeling a touch of wistfulness at the sight of how happy they seemed to be just to see each other. The soft touch of lips against his cheek made him jump and look at Yami.

"Someday, you'll have someone to be just as happy with." Yami promised him.

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Wolf: Review plz!


	11. Tiny Revelations

Wolf: I own nothing!

Yugi watched Yami over top of the book that he was reading. It was getting close to lights out and the two of them were winding down. Yami had taken his shirt off in preparation for bed and Yugi was getting a generous view of his well-muscled, though scarred, upper body. Yugi felt himself beginning to blush again as he watched the muscles ripple with each shift of Yami's body.

"Is something wrong, Yugi?" Yugi looked away from Yami's chest to find burning, amused crimson eyes staring at him.

"No, nothing." Yugi said, looking away. Suddenly he felt a weight on his bed and looked up in surprise. Yami was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking down on him.

"I saw that blush." Yami said huskily, a smirk plastered to his face. "You don't have to hide the fact that you're attracted to me, or find my body sexy. I find that to be a great compliment actually."

"I'm just not used to all these feelings." Yugi mumbled. "Being attracted to someone is all so new to me."

"Everyone has to experience it for the first time." Yami shrugged. "What's throwing you off is that this is the first time you've allowed your emotions free reign, and what you're getting is some very powerful emotions first time out, am I right?" Yugi nodded. "A little scary?" Yugi nodded again, biting his lip.

"Love is scary, but it's also incredible." Yami said.

"Have you ever been in love?" Yugi asked, a sudden flow of jealousy rushing through him at the thought of Yami touching and kissing anyone else.

"No, Little One. I am simply drawing on the experiences of others, and of my experiences with you." Yami explained. Yugi tilted his head slightly in confusion. "When I first saw you in that bar I thought that you were the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen, and I wanted to have you, why do you think I kissed you like that?"

"So, part of the reason you brought me to the rebels..."

"I was attracted to you, and I wanted to see if I could get it to grow into something." Yami revealed. "In you I could have someone who was my equal. You wouldn't want me just because I was powerful, if I could make you feel for me back, it would be because you loved me for me." Yugi shivered as Yami's warm hand ran down his back.

"I think I'm attracted to you because you were so gentle with me." Yugi murmured. "You didn't have to be kind to me, and yet you were." Yami leaned over and kissed his cheek. As he did so the lights went out.

"Goodnight Yugi." Yami said in the darkness. Yugi mumbled a reply and then wrapped himself up in the warm sheets of the bed, drifting off to a comfortable sleep.

%&%&%&%

Seto looked up as Yami entered the cell, bearing a syringe and a chessboard. He backed away, but Yami moved quicker, pinning him to the wall and sticking the needle in his neck. Once done, Yami released him and set up the chessboard. Seto stared at him and Yami raised an eyebrow.

"You must be bored, let's play." Seto snorted and sat down, watching as Yami set up the pieces. Seto chose the white pieces and went first.

"Did I scare away the little Mutt from yesterday?" Seto asked.

"No, Joey has other things to do." Yami replied. "So don't think you've gotten rid of him so easily. If that boy gets it in his head to do something, he'll stick to it, and he seems to be stuck on you."

"Hmph, just my luck." Seto said, frowning at the chessboard slightly. "Why exactly did you go AWOL, Beta?"

"It's Yami now, I will not answer to any other name." Yami replied. "I was sent on a mission. We'd tracked a resistance base to a small town in Germany, and we were ordered to go in and kill everyone in that town."

"Typical procedure." Seto grunted, moving one of his bishops.

"Yes, well, it was all going as it normally would, until the one man I shot didn't go down right away, but ran for one of the houses." Yami replied. "I went inside, following the trail of blood that he'd left behind. I heard soft sobbing from somewhere and when I opened the door to one of the room I saw a little girl, probably only about eight or nine, hugging the man's head in her arms."

"Father, perhaps?"

"He was. When she saw me she just stared at me, eyes filled with tears. 'Why?' She asked me. 'Why?'" Yami gulped and then continued. "I was supposed to shoot her too, those were orders. But she was just a little girl, an innocent. How could I shoot her? I made the decision that moment and scooped that little girl up, walking away from the village, and never turning back."

"A little girl." Yami could hear the sneer in Seto's voice. "You gave up glory and condemned yourself, for a little girl?"

"An innocent." Yami barked. "We were trained to deal with rebels, evil-doers, whatever those might be, not children, not the helpless. I will not be a part of an organization that has no mercy." He placed one of his pieces and sat back. "Checkmate."

%&%&%&%

Yami wandered back to his room, rubbing at his forehead as a headache set in. Yugi was sitting on his bed, reading, and looked up as Yami entered.

"Is something wrong, Yami?" Yugi asked, seeing the aggravated expression on Yami's face.

"It's just Seto, nothing new." Yami replied, finding a couple of aspirin and swallowing them dry. "We were always good at getting on each other's nerves. We were very competitive, you see."

"He always won though." Yugi guessed. He wasn't expecting Yami to shake his head.

"He might have been stronger physically, but I had the advantage when it came to strategy." Yami explained. "The only reason he was Alpha and not me was because he was the Overlord's adoptive son. He was always trying to get the better of me so that he could prove that wasn't true."

"He hated you for that though, didn't he?" Yugi asked.

"Of course he did. He was probably glad that I was gone in the end, no more having to worry about who was the best." Yami replied. "He'll hate me more now that I've gotten the better of him again." He murmured, rubbing his temples. "It won't be easy getting him to see things, not if I'm the one trying to convince him, at least."

"Do you think you could get Joey to help you? He said he was interested in him." Yugi suggested.

"That was exactly what I had been thinking." Yami said with a smile. "It seems we're a good match." He sauntered over to Yugi's bed and pinned the younger man down to the mattress. Yugi blinked at him in surprise, looking a little bit nervous, but Yami only chuckled and leaned down to lock their lips together.

Yugi mewled and relaxed as Yami lovingly twined their hands together as they kissed. Yami nibbled at his bottom lip, making Yugi gasp in surprise. Yami pushed his tongue into Yugi's mouth, tasting his sweet scent. Yugi was coaxed into a battle of dominance with Yami's tongue, eventually losing as Yami tantalizingly ran his hands down his sides, distracting him and making him moan out loud.

Yami pushed his lower body against Yugi, wanting to see how far he could take this, but quickly moved away when Yugi froze underneath him. He quickly had Yugi in his lap, gently stroking his hair. "It's alright, Yugi, it's alright." He could feel Yugi shivering slightly in his grasp and mentally cursed his damned libido.

"I'm sorry, I just...just..."

"Got scared." Yugi nodded and buried his face in Yami's shirt. "It's nothing to be ashamed about. Your only sexual experience has been rape, it won't be easy to work past that." Yami pressed a kiss to Yugi's forehead. "I can wait, forever if need be, for you to be ready."

"You mean, you're letting me be the one to decide if we go that far?" Yugi looked up at Yami in surprise.

"Of course. I don't want to hurt you, and I don't want to scare you." Yami replied. "I only ever want to hear you scream in pleasure, never pain."

Yugi's face went bright red and he hid it in Yami's shirt, making the taller chuckle.

"Who would have thought, Yugi, the Beta, shy."

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Wolf: Review plz!


	12. Puppies and Training

Wolf: I own nothing!

Seto looked up as the door to his cell creaked open, revealing the blond from the other day, the Mutt. "So, come back for more, have you?" He smirked slightly. The honey-coloured eyes narrowed slightly.

"Better be polite or I won't let you have any of the delicious lasagne that I made myself." Joey replied.

"If it was made by you, then I'm not sure I want it." Seto deadpanned.

"Ask any of the guys in this base and they'll tell you that my cooking is great." Joey said with pride in his voice. "And even if I wanted to poison you, Yami would be on my ass for that." Seto grunted in reply, but took the tray when Joey slid it over to him. Joey stood up to go.

"Too scared to stick around?" Seto taunted. Joey turned and favoured him a simmering glare.

"I'm not afraid of you." He grumbled and sat down by the door. "Got nothing else to do right now, may as well annoy you for a little while."

"I could attack you, take you my captive." Seto said idly, watching Joey. Joey snorted derisively in reply.

"Not with that dope running through your system." He pointed out. "Got a taste of that stuff when I tried to escape lock-up the first time you dogs caught me. Not a fun experience."

"You obviously deserved to be there, why would you even try to escape." Seto stated tonelessly.

"Because I needed to make sure my sister was ok." Joey said. "You probably don't understand this, but my father wasn't exactly the world's greatest role model. I was always afraid..." He gulped. "I was always afraid that he might hurt her if I wasn't there to take the beating instead."

"Your father must have had a good reason for beating you."

"He was a mean, drunken bastard. That was his reason." Joey snarled. "He'd come home, loaded on beer bought with the money that was supposed to feed us, and he'd go after me, demanding to know where his money from whatever menial jobs I could pick up was."

Seto was silent for a moment, feeling rage and pain radiating off of the smaller male. "Where was your mother in all this?" He asked quietly.

"She died when I was seven." Joey answered. "She died of the flu. Before the Overlord took over, she could have gone to a hospital, gotten antibiotics and she might have lived, but she died because there are no doctors for the common folk anymore."

"That's a lie." Seto replied.

"You think so? Have you ever been out in the world, wandering around? Have you ever lived in the communities we have to live in? We have nothing anymore, most of us can barely feed ourselves, can barely shelter ourselves, and it's because of the Overlord." Joey snarled. "He doesn't care about us, all he cares about is that he holds the whole world in his grasp and can take as much as he wants from it without having to give anything back."

"You shouldn't talk that way about the Overlord." Seto said tonelessly.

"Is that the Hellhound talking, or is that Seto talking?" Joey asked. Seto gave him a blank look. "Look, I know the Overlord is your stepfather, and that you were the first he ever trained in the manner of a Hellhound, but... you must have some memory of what the world was like before." Seto remained silent. "Eh, worth a shot, right?" Joey sighed and ran his fingers through his mop of blond hair. "Better eat your lasagne before it gets cold." He said and then stood up and walked out, leaving Seto alone again.

He looked at the tray of lasagne with its glass of water and then pulled it towards himself, picking up the fork. He hesitated before taking a bite, but finally shrugged and shoved the fork in his mouth. His eyes opened wide in surprise as the complex, tomato-garlic-cheese-noodle flavour assaulted his tongue. It was delicious. Joey hadn't been lying when he said he was a good cook.

As he chewed he thought about the things he'd been told by the blond. His Hellhound training demanded that he dismiss them as propaganda and concentrate on getting the hell out of there, but his rational, deeper mind urged him to wait, go over the conversation again, look and listen well.

His photographic memory fed him the image of Joey's face, so torn and broken at the mention of his mother dying, and then so lividly angry when he was talking about all that he claimed the Overlord had taken from them all. Those emotions had been real, raw and painful. He was not so out of touch with emotions that he could not tell when someone was faking it, and Joey certainly hadn't been faking.

So where did that leave him? If Joey was correct, then the life he'd been living, the people that he'd killed, may have been the ones in the right all along. His training immediately tried to shove down that idea, but he held onto it grimly, keeping it in the light, determined to get to the bottom of the great conspiracy he seemed to have found himself in.

%&%&%&%

"Yami, I want something productive to do around here." Yami looked up from his reports, startled by Yugi's request. Yugi had been a part of the rebel base for over a week and people were finally getting used to his presence around the base, enough that Yugi had the confidence to wander around without Yami there to make sure nothing happened to him.

"What do you mean, Yugi?" Yami asked.

"Everyone pulls their weight around here, except for me, I want to do something to help." Yugi explained, rubbing his hands together nervously.

"Do you have any suggestions of what you could do?" Yami asked, understanding where Yugi was coming from.

"I could... I could be a combat trainer. Train people how to fight well enough to combat a Hellhound." Yugi suggested tentatively. Yami gave him an intrigued look.

"Now, that's something we don't have." He said. "I have to be a leader, and so have no time to do training like that, but I think that the people here could benefit from it, certainly."

"So, will you set it up?" Yugi asked, looking at him pleadingly with wide violet eyes. He'd learned very quickly that he could bend Yami to his will with the right look from his eyes. He was understandably smug about that fact.

"Of course I will." Yami replied, moving over to wrap Yugi in an embrace and kiss him gently. Yugi nuzzled against him as Yami slid his hands up his sides, tickling his sensitive stomach. Yugi giggled slightly and kissed against Yami's pulse, making the taller man sigh softly in pleasure. This was as far as Yugi allowed their touching and kissing to go, and Yami respected that. They parted after a few minutes, out of breath and Yugi's lips swollen from the hard, passionate kisses.

"I should have things set up by tomorrow, ok?" Yami whispered to him, running his fingers through Yugi's silky mane. Yugi closed his eyes and nodded, just simply enjoying Yami's closeness and touch.

%&%&%&%

A small crowd gathered by the banks of the Nile. The area was secluded, fairly close to the base and monitored by motion sensors. Yugi looked at all of the men who had decided to see what his training would be. They looked nervous and wary, not quite trusting him just yet.

"I will start this session by teaching you different methods of getting out of holds." Yugi said loudly to quiet the crowd. They watched him, waiting for him to impress, and he suddenly felt shy and small. "I will need a volunteer to help me demonstrate." No one came forward at first, but then a tall, familiar blond pushed his way to the front to stand in front of Yugi, grinning slightly.

"Just don't hurt me too bad, ok?" Joey said, grinning wider. Yugi returned the smile a little bit shyly.

"Don't worry, I know how to hold back." He replied. He got Joey to put him in a head lock, and then demonstrated how to knock an attacker off balance and pull out of their grasp. After he demonstrated he got them to partner up and practice the move on each other while he walked around them, correcting and giving tips on how they could improve.

By the end of the session the rebels' wariness was appeased by his confident and patient teaching manner, and the fact that he allowed Joey to dump him on his behind a couple times. Yami was watching from the sidelines, where no one could see him. He wanted to see how they would react to Yugi without him there to keep the peace.

He smiled to himself. His Little One was charming them all it seemed. The looks of surprise on some of the big men's faces when this little, childish looking man would throw Joey and force him off were priceless and he had to stop himself from chuckling out loud. All in all, a good start.

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Wolf: Review plz!


	13. Family

Wolf: I own nothing!

"You mentioned a sister before, tell me about her." Seto ordered Joey when he came in. The two of them hadn't done much talking since Joey's angry outburst. Seto was trying not to let Joey's words affect him, and Joey was trying not to punch the cold man. But, Seto was only human, and the long, lonely hours in the cell took a toll on him.

"Why should I tell you anything, you bastard?" Joey snarled as he placed a tray with blueberry pancakes on the ground for Seto. Seto looked at him for a moment, seeing that his approach wasn't going to work.

"I'd like to hear about her, please." He said in a gentler tone this time. Joey's amber eyes widened a little at the polite tone. He hesitated a moment and then sat down as Seto pulled the tray of pancakes towards himself.

"Her name is Serenity, and she's beautiful. She's got long light brown hair, and big green eyes that she uses to get me to do whatever she wants, not that she even has to try." He chuckled. "She looks up to me, because she knows I'll do everything I can to protect her."

"Where is she now?" Seto asked.

"She works in one of the governors' houses. It's too risky for her to be involved directly with the rebels, and I don't want to see her get hurt or killed." Joey explained. "Do you have any family, besides the Overlord?"

"He's not precisely family..." Seto stared down at his half-eaten pancakes, contemplating. Oh, the hell with it, wasn't like Joey could use the information against him. "I had a younger brother, but he died."

"I'm sorry." Joey shook his head. "It's tough losing someone you care about. What was his name?"

"...Mokuba." Seto replied, remembering the tiny toddler that had been his whole world before the Overlord had taken him away.

"And there's no chance at all that he might still be alive?" Joey persisted.

"The orphanage was fire-bombed, I don't think so." Seto replied, pushing his plate of pancakes away, appetite gone. "Even if he was still alive, I wouldn't recognise him, and I don't think he'd remember me."

Joey then did something that shocked Seto. He reached across the distance between them and placed his hand gently on Seto's shoulder. For a moment Seto contemplated grabbing the arm and subduing Joey, but something inside him told him not to.

"I don't think that you should give up hope." Joey said quietly. "If there is any chance at all that he might still be out there, then you should search until your dying day. That's what I'd do if it were Serenity I had lost."

Seto couldn't find anything to say, words of distain and thanks stuck in his throat, choking him with emotion he tried so desperately to shove down. Joey took the tray and smiled at him before leaving him alone again.

Seto lay back on the narrow cot, putting his hands behind his head. The blond really wasn't that foolish, and he was good-looking to boot. Seto had briefly entertained the thought recently of kidnapping Joey and making him his bed mate, but not only would Joey likely fight him every step of the way, as the Alpha, he wasn't allowed to have any sort of relationship with anyone.

He decided to take a nap, tired of trying to sort out the conflicting feelings that assaulted him every waking hour. One thought followed him into sleep; what did he owe his stepfather, really?

%&%&%&%

Yugi corrected Rishid's stance and then watched him perform the high block again, nodding in approval. He'd really taken to the role as trainer and enjoyed his sessions out by the Nile, though he had to be sure to wear sunscreen, otherwise his pale skin would burn, much to his dismay. He'd found his shoulders red as a lobster after his first session outside. Of course Yami had been the one to rub the soothing aloe onto the burns.

At the thought of Yami a small smile crossed Yugi's lips. He'd woken up to a rose by his bed, a small poem, and one of the caramel candies that Yami had discovered Yugi had a liking to. It seemed that Yami was a romantic, and Yugi revelled in the attention he was being paid. He really enjoyed feeling like he was something special. He was still working past having Yami touch him in certain places, but Yami was so sweet and patient that he was a little more comfortable every day.

When the training session was over Yugi accepted the pats, light punches and handshakes his students felt the need to bestow on him every time. He listened to one or two of them who wanted to know how to improve on something, and then he headed in the direction of that familiar spiky hair and crimson eyes that glowed with affection as soon as he got near.

"Hey." Yugi said, smiling as he was grabbed around the waist.

"Hey yourself." Yami replied. "They're looking good."

"They're a good bunch." Yugi replied. Yami leaned down to kiss him deeply. Yugi sighed into it, placing his hands on Yami's chest. "I was thinking about something you said to me awhile back." Yugi said when they parted.

"And what was that?"

"Dancing without abandon underneath the stars with the beat of the drums reverberating in your heart." Yami nodded, remembering when he'd mentioned this. "I'd like to know how that feels."

"There is a celebration coming up, an old festival of welcoming the rains back." Yami said. "We can all dance then."

"Sounds good to me." Yugi murmured, resting his head on Yami's chest. Yami chuckled softly, his arms tightening around Yugi.

"I have a surprise for you." Yami suddenly whispered, his breath tickling Yugi's ear.

"What?" Yugi asked, looking up at him.

"If I told you, then it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?" Yami smiled impishly as Yugi gave him a pout, an expression he picked up from Serenity. He took Yugi's hand and led him back to the base.

"What kind of surprise is it?" Yugi asked as they got inside the cool darkness of the underground passageways. The sweat on his skin instantly became cold, cooling down his overheated body. He sighed in relief, enjoying the sensation of cool. He was learning to take time to enjoy the little things in life, now that he was living with Yami.

"Oh, it's a surprise that I think you're going to enjoy." Yami replied cryptically, making Yugi pout again.

They came to one of the many bedrooms in the base and Yami gestured for Yugi to go inside. Yugi gave him a confused look, but did as Yami directed, feeling Yami move in behind him. An old man sat on the lone bed, staring at a book in his hands. His grey hair spiked up above his head, and a ragged beard and moustache graced his lined face. Yugi gasped as he recognised the old man from his dreams.

At his gasp the old man looked up, and dropped the book on the floor in surprise. His eyes, the exact shade as Yugi's, widened in shock and he lurched to his feet, looking as though he'd seen a ghost. "Yugi? The old man whispered in a hopeful, grieving tone. "Could that really be you?"

"My name, it's really Yugi then?" Yugi whispered, looking into the old man's eyes. "Grandpa?"

Yugi's grandfather tentatively shuffled forward and placed his hand on Yugi's cheek. Yugi could feel the quiver in his palm as the old man's eyes filled with tears. He allowed his grandfather to pull him into a tight embrace.

"My boy, I thought I'd lost you." His grandfather sobbed. Yugi felt himself choking up as well and he fought back the tears that threatened to spill. His grandfather let out a particularly loud, shuddering sob and the sound undid him and he found fat tears spilling down his cheeks and he gripped his grandfather as hard as the old man was gripping him. The two of them stood like that for the longest time, just crying for joy and for sorrow.

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Wolf: Review plz!


	14. Lost and Found

Wolf: I own nothing!

When the tears finally dried up, Yugi and his grandfather were sitting on the bed, still clinging to each other. Yugi was smiling like a little kid, all wonder and hope. The old man ran a shaking hand through Yugi's hair wonderingly and turned tearful eyes to Yami.

"I can't thank you enough for this." He said in a voice choked with emotion.

"There's nothing to thank, I wanted to help Yugi figure out where he came from, Solomon. It's thanks enough to see that beautiful smile on Yugi's face." Yami replied, looking mildly embarrassed. "I'll leave you two alone to sort things out while I look over some reports."

Yugi watched him go and then turned back to his grandfather. "I'm so glad you remember me." Solomon said.

"I didn't... until a few weeks ago." Yugi revealed. "The memory helped me make the right decision."

"I'm glad of that." Solomon replied, still stroking Yugi's soft hair.

"Where did my parents go?" Yugi asked.

"They died when you were very young, Yugi." Solomon explained. "A car crash. I took care of you until you were seven, and then you disappeared."

"The Hellhounds took me." Yugi said.

"I figured as much. By that point we'd all heard the rumours about the kids with specific talents being taken away. You were always so good with games, and strategies." Solomon sighed. "I should have been more careful, but I was so proud of you, and I bragged."

"It's not your fault, they may have found me anyways." Yugi soothed, seeing his grandfather getting ready to cry again. "And it's ok now, I'm not with them anymore."

"How did that happen?" Solomon asked. Yugi explained the events that had led to this moment, glossing over his torture and rape at the hands of Keith, he didn't want to talk about that, and he didn't want to make the fragile old man more upset than he already was.

"So you're working here now?" Solomon asked. Yugi nodded his head. "Hm, I suppose it wouldn't be wise for me to try to take you back to Japan with me anyways. You're too recognisable."

"Is that where I used to live, in Japan?" Solomon nodded, smiling at Yugi's wonder. "What are you going to do now? Will you go back to Japan?"

"There's not a whole lot to go back to." Solomon shrugged. "And Yami offered me a place here. I have a gift for tinkering, and he said he could use my old hands in the shop, working on machine parts and the like."

"So you're staying then?" Yugi asked, feeling happiness in his core at the thought.

"I guess I am." Solomon chuckled, and enveloped his grandson in a hug again.

%&%&%&%

Joey had been one of the team to go get Yugi's grandfather from Japan, and at Yami's request, had stayed to touch base with the rebel fighters in the area. He had said yes, but he fidgeted a bit about being away from Seto. Not that he liked the guy of course, it was just no one else knew how to handle him, and Joey figured the brunet would probably get lonely...

He mentally smacked himself for having those kind of thoughts, especially about a guy who would never in a million years want to be with him. Crap... he'd really started to like the guy. Joey sighed and looked around the city he was in and decided to sit on one of the benches that didn't look like it had been pissed or puked on.

He looked up at the sky and squeezed his eyes shut at the predicament that he had found himself in. He was having romantic thoughts about a guy with the emotional range of a teaspoon (A/N free cookie to anyone who can tell me where that came from!). Even if Joey tried to court Seto, Seto probably wouldn't even understand what he was trying to do.

Although... Seto had shown a range of emotions when Joey had talked to him. Most were distain, disbelief, annoyance and a few others, but they proved that the man wasn't some robot in disguise. Maybe it wasn't such a lost cause feeling affection for him.

"STOP THIEF!" The sudden loud cry jerked Joey out of his thoughts and he looked up in time to see a kid running down the street, a pair of Hellhounds hot on his heels. Apparently the kid had stolen something, and had been unlucky enough to have the Hellhounds close enough to chase him.

Joey got up and ambled casually into the alleyway bordering the streets. Once out of sight he began running in the direction the kid was running, keeping an eye out for him. Once he passed the kid he ran down the alleyway leading back up to the street and waited. Running footfalls reached his ears and he darted a hand out to pull the kid into the darkness of the alley.

He clamped one arm around the kid's chest, and the other over his mouth. The kid struggled, writhing like a furious snake. "Quiet." Joey hissed. "Do you want them to find us?" The kid stopped struggling and Joey could hear him panting with exertion. The two Hellhounds clamoured past the alley they were in, not even so much as turning.

Joey released the kid, who immediately began stuffing the roll he'd stolen into his mouth. Joey took a good look at him, seeing dirty, ill-fitting, ragged clothes hung on a body that was too thin to be healthy. The kid looked and smelled like he hadn't had a bath in weeks and had long, snarled, shaggy black hair. Navy blue eyes blinked up at him uncertainly, the kid looked about sixteen or so.

"What's your name, kid?" He asked. The boy swallowed, licking stray crumbs off his lips before answering.

"Mokuba." Joey felt as though he'd taken an ice cold shower at the name. _Ridiculous! _He told himself. _There's got to be a hundred kids with the name Mokuba._ He had to be sure though.

"You got any family, kiddo?" Mokuba shook his head, jamming his hands into the ripped pockets of his jeans. "Did you ever have any family?"

"I had a brother." Joey's heart did a flip-flop. "His name was Seto, but he disappeared." Joey's mind went into overdrive. This was Seto's little brother, the one that he thought was dead. And it was obvious that he was no friend of the law as well. Maybe this would be the catalyst to bringing Seto on their side. Joey's motive wasn't purely strategy though, no, he wanted to reunite this little family, and get this kid off the streets as well.

"Do you want to get off the streets, Mokuba?" Joey asked, afraid of how the kid would react if he just straight-up told him his brother was still around. Mokuba nodded soberly. "You don't like the Hellhounds do you, or the Overlord?"

"He's the reason I'm out on the streets." Mokuba growled. "The first orphanage was blown up, and the second one didn't have enough of anything, so I ran away and now I can't find work and I gotta steal to survive."

"Have they ever caught you?" Joey asked.

"Not yet."

"Consider yourself lucky then." Joey said. "Now, I'm part of the rebels, and I'm willing to take you back with me, if you can promise that there will be no double crossing."

"I'm no squealer." Mokuba growled defensively. Joey smiled and ruffled the tangled hair. The kid reminded him of himself a couple years back, no place to go, no money to eat and constantly on the run. He knew he would have taken this stray back, even if he wasn't anyone's brother.

"Alrighty then, I think we should get going, my ride leaves in an hour." Joey said. "I'm Joey by the way." He stuck out his hand and Mokuba tentatively shook it. The two of them then trekked through the alleys, keeping a low profile. Joey could hardly keep himself from grinning like a loon; boy were these two brothers about to get the biggest surprise of their lives.

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Wolf: Review plz!


	15. True Revelation

Wolf: I own nothing!

Yami raised an eyebrow at the young, dirty, unkempt man that Joey brought back to the base with him. The boy reminded him of someone, but he couldn't put his finger on it until he realized the kid looked like Joey when he'd first found him, dirty, underfed, and distrustful. The boy was looking around with the same level of wariness and wonder that Joey had displayed two years ago.

"Bringing home strays I see." Yami commented cheerfully. Joey jerked his head up and gave him a sheepish grin.

"I guess so, if that's alright?" Joey asked hesitantly.

"It's fine so long as he follows the rules." Yami chuckled. "I've taken in my own share of strays, remember?" He winked at Joey, who grinned widely. "Now, what's your name, kiddo?"

"Mokuba." Mokuba answered quietly, intimidated by the man with the crimson eyes. He remembered him as a Hellhound on the TV a few years back. "You're a Hellhound."

"Not anymore." Yami sighed. "There's nothing to be scared of here, Mokuba. You're not going to have to steal food. But understand that this is a fighting unit and that death can happen here. Are you willing to take the risks?" Mokuba nodded without any hesitation. "Good."

"Why don't you get yourself cleaned up?" Joey suggested. "I'll show you where the showers are, and then you could go get something to eat." At the mention of food, Mokuba's eyes lit up and he nodded eagerly. Joey chuckled and showed him to the showers.

As Yami walked along, inspecting the rest of the rebels' work he was suddenly accosted again by Joey. "Yami, I need to talk to you about the kid."

"What about Mokuba?" Yami asked, confused. Joey's eyes flicked back and forth, making sure they were alone.

"He's Seto's little brother." Joey whispered and Yami's eyes widened in realization.

"Seto told me he had a brother named Mokuba, but I didn't even think about it when you said the kid's name." Yami thought a moment. "It's got to be him too, because that kid is the right age and the right looks too."

"Do you think this could help us with Seto?" Joey asked.

"It might, or it could send him off the deep-end." Yami mused. "But, it's worth a shot. Let's get the kid settled in and comfortable before doing anything though, ok?" Joey nodded in agreement. "Oh, and go see Seto, he's been pining after you." Joey grinned, looking somewhat embarrassed, and headed down to the cell bank.

He opened the cell door and blue eyes blinked up at him from the cot. Seto was lying down, hands folded behind his head, looking bored. Those blue eyes actually lit up at the sight of Joey.

"So, the Mutt finally came back?" Seto taunted, but listening carefully, Joey thought he could detect a note of relief in his voice.

"Aww, did you miss me?" He teased back.

"There's no one who's as interesting to make fun of around here." Seto said by way of explanation. "Where were you?"

"Just checking out some things in other areas." Joey said, shrugging his shoulders. "Keeping out of trouble?"

"As if I could get into trouble." Seto snorted, referring to the sedative he was kept on. "Though one of the guys that brought me meals was so jumpy that when I reached for the tray he shot me full of dope." Joey winced in sympathy. "At least you don't twitch every time I make a move." Seto grumbled.

"So, you did miss me." Joey stated with glee, grinning when Seto threw him an annoyed look. "Now, if I could just get you to lay off the dog jokes..."

%&%&%&%

Seto felt different now. Joey had been back for two days, and every time that Seto saw him, his heart did a little skip. He remembered an old saying he'd heard one time, 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'. He hadn't understood it until now.

Joey had left without letting Seto know where he was going, or that he was going in the first place. Even though there was really no reason that Joey would give him that information, Seto had been furious that Joey had just wandered off, which was just so out of character for him, and his Hellhound training hadn't even been able to make him stop feeling that time.

The worst part about it was that no one would tell him what had happened to Joey! For all he could have known, Joey could have been dead somewhere, and as the days stretched on, he became increasingly agitated and frustrated. He felt like spanking the pup for making him so, so...worried!

Seto found that he wouldn't mind being kept in a cell forever if it meant that he got to verbally spar with Joey for the rest of his life. He wasn't allowed to argue with the Overlord, and the Hellhounds wouldn't argue with him, so it was wonderful to have someone that wasn't intimidated by him and that would bite back.

The cell door creaked open and Seto sat up expectantly, putting on his poker face, but eagerly awaiting the sight of those honey-coloured eyes. To his dismay it was Yami and Yugi who came in, and they had a straightjacket and a pair of shackles with them no less.

"What do you want?" He asked tonelessly.

"We're going for a little walk." Yami answered, getting down on one knee to secure the shackles around Seto's ankles while Yugi put the straightjacket on him. Seto knew better than to protest, two Betas against one drugged-up Alpha did not make for a fair fight and he didn't need to be made a bigger fool than he already felt.

Yami hauled him to his feet and got him walking down the hallways. Thankfully there weren't a whole lot of people around, but those that were goggled at him annoyingly as he was forced to shuffle along. The only indication of his displeasure was a low rumbling growl that escaped his throat as they walked along, which made Yami tighten his grip ever so slightly on his arm.

Yami and Yugi escorted him to a small room and sat him down on the bed there. Yami left the room for a moment and Seto contented himself with glaring at Yugi. "And what have you been doing while I've been stuck in the dungeon?" Seto asked.

"I was reunited with my grandfather." Yugi replied calmly. "He thought I was dead." Seto's heart lurched for want of his brother. Footsteps marched towards them and Yami came in, followed by Joey, who was followed by... Seto stared, the colour draining from his face, at the young man that had followed Joey in.

Shaggy black hair surrounded a face that was still somewhat childish looking, with navy blue eyes looking out from behind shaggy bangs warily. It couldn't be, it just wasn't possible. But then those navy blue eyes found his, and widened in recognition.

"Seto?" Mokuba whispered hopefully, taking a tiny step forward. "Is that you?"

"Mokuba..." The word could barely be choked out from a throat that had all but completely closed off.

"Why is he all tied up like that?" Mokuba asked, staring up at Joey.

"He's the Alpha, Mokuba, that's why. We can't risk letting him go free." Joey explained gently.

"You're one of the Hellhounds?" Mokuba's lip curled up, and Seto saw that his younger brother had no love of the Hellhounds at all. An awful thought came to Seto's mind.

"Have the Hellhounds hurt you?" Seto asked in a hoarse voice. Mokuba gave him a distrustful look, and shook his head. Seto felt his stomach unknot in relief.

"If I hadn't gotten him off the streets, he would have been eventually." Joey commented.

"You brought him here?" Seto asked. Joey nodded his head. "Thank you so much."

"I figured, the least I could do was let both of you know that the other was alive." Joey scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed.

Mokuba edged forwards, big eyes beginning to brim with tears. "I thought you were dead." He whimpered.

"And I thought you had died as well." Seto replied, feeling his own eyes starting to burn with unshed tears. "They said rebels fire-bombed the orphanage." Mokuba shook his head.

"It was the Hellhounds, only they had that kind of firepower." Yami said. "You know that as well as I." Something clicked in Seto's mind. He'd begged the Overlord to adopt Mokuba as well, but he'd refused. Seto had kept begging up until the day the orphanage went up in flame. He had set that up!

"The Overlord wanted to get Mokuba out of the way, because he knew he wouldn't be able to mould me if he was there." Seto growled, teeth clenching angrily. "That bastard! He's earned himself a new enemy."

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Wolf: Review plz!


	16. Acceptance

Wolf: I own nothing!

"You're not just saying that to get us to untie you, are you?" Yami asked suspiciously. Seto glared at him.

"That bastard basically tortured me to make me into a Hellhound, and he tried to kill me, do you really believe that I'm faking it?" He growled.

"I have the safety of this entire base to think about, I am only doing my job, Seto." Yami responded. Seto nodded curtly.

"Can you untie me now?" Seto demanded. "I want to hug my baby brother." Yami nodded and walked behind Seto to undo the straightjacket while Yugi unshackled his ankles. Seto lurched to his feet and hesitantly reached out for Mokuba. Mokuba wrapped his arms around Seto's waist, burying his face in Seto's chest and let out a faint sob.

Seto softly stroked Mokuba's hair, whispering soothingly to him. Tears gathered in the corners of Seto's eyes and slid down his cheeks silently. He looked up and met Joey's golden eyes, which were also filling with tears, and smiled tenderly at him, wordlessly thanking him for bringing his brother back to him. Joey smiled in return.

"Mokuba knows most of the ropes by this point, I'll let him show you around." Yami said. "I'll spread the word that you're on our side so that no one tries to take a stab at you." He said before snagging Yugi and taking him out of the room. Joey ruffled Mokuba's hair before exiting as well, letting the brothers catch up after so many years apart.

%&%&%&%

"How long have you been out on the streets?" Seto asked as Mokuba led him outside to end their tour.

"About two years or so." Mokuba admitted. "There wasn't enough at the orphanage, of anything, and I was old enough to survive on my own. Most orphan kids are kicked out anyways at sixteen, I was just saving them the trouble."

"If I had known you were alive..." Seto trailed off, feeling guilty for pushing his memories of his brother away for so many years.

"But you didn't, the Overlord made sure of that." Mokuba replied practically. "I know you would have searched to the ends of the earth if you had any thought that I was alive." He added with childish adoration in his blue eyes. Seto ruffled his hair gently.

"Where exactly are you taking me now?" He asked as they headed for the Nile.

"Joey told me that Yugi teaches fighting lessons out here every day." Mokuba replied. "I want to watch." Seto nodded and allowed Mokuba to drag him to the sound of voices by the riverbank. Yugi was demonstrating a throw when they got there, aided by the ever-eager puppy, who bounced back immediately, even after hitting a tree. Yugi noticed the two of them watching and nodded his head in their direction. Some of the men followed his gaze and gave Seto slightly hostile looks.

Seto watched Yugi's patience with his students as he corrected stances, gave tips and listened to complaints that some of them had. He even allowed his students to attempt their new skill on him, just to see how they would measure up. When the lesson was done Yugi allowed them to clap him on the shoulder, shake his hand, even ruffle his spiky hair.

Seto caught Joey's eye across the small clearing and decided he needed to speak to the man. "Mokuba, why don't you go back to the base with Yugi and the others?" Seto suggested.

"Why?" Mokuba asked, but then he noticed where his brother was gazing. "Ohh, okay!" He bounced off, running up to Yugi and immediately chatting happy with the older, but not taller, man. Joey waited against a tree, hands in his pockets, as Seto strode over to him.

"Walk with me?" Seto asked. Joey looked up at him and nodded his head in assent. The two of them walked along the Nile River. Joey took off his shoes and walked barefoot along the bank. "I need to thank you properly for bringing my brother back to me." Seto said. "Even though it was probably only to convince me over to your side..." He trailed off as Joey shook his head.

"You know what the first thing I thought of was?" Seto shrugged his shoulders. "I thought of my sister, and how I would feel if I thought she was dead. I was thinking that I would want someone to bring her back to me." Joey said. "That was my motivation, and the idea that you might be swayed to our side, only came after."

"He looks pretty skinny." Seto commented.

"He's been on the streets for two years, he's not getting all the food his body needs, so yeah he's skinny. I looked like that a couple years ago too." Joey admitted. "He kind of reminded me of myself back then, and that's the other reason I brought him here, to escape the streets and being beaten and locked up because he can't find work and has to steal to survive."

"Was it really so bad when you were out in the world?" Seto asked.

"It wouldn't have been so bad if dad wasn't such a drunk." Joey growled angrily. "But he was, and most of the time he drank away what little money we had. I sometimes could get work, helping out with deliveries, stuff like that, but it wasn't much and I'd have to hide it from dad, because he would drink that money away too. So yeah, it was that bad."

"I'm sorry." Seto said humbly. "I was always taught to ignore everything but what mattered for taking down the target, so I never really noticed when I was out on missions just how bad it was."

"I'll have to take you into town sometime so that you can get a first-hand account." Joey replied. "The rebels in all areas do what they can to get necessities to those really poverty-stricken, but it's a tricky business."

"I would imagine." Seto said. "It may become easier for you now, even the Hellhounds will lose faith if their own Alpha has turned against them." Joey grinned impishly.

"From our intelligence reports, some of them already are." He said smugly. "They're starting to think maybe the Overlord isn't as big and bad as they thought, and some of the rest of the world is getting that idea too."

"Hmm, that could cause a lot of bloodshed if there are open revolts." Seto pointed out.

"That's why we keep an eye on things, make sure nothing beyond rumblings is heard." Joey replied. "That should rattle the Overlord enough, right?"

"Should. You should have seen him after Yami disappeared, he was livid, but he was also scared." Seto smirked. "I think that's the only time I'd ever seen him show fear. Before the end, I want to see that expression in his eyes again."

"I'll bet Yami will let you have him, if you want." Joey said. "You were the first, and he took away your brother, so it would only be fitting that you be the one to finish him."

"You think he'd allow that?" Seto asked in surprise.

"If you talked to him about it." Joey shrugged. "I don't think he cares who takes out the Overlord, just as long as he's taken out and a proper government put in place."

"With Yami in charge?"

"He'd be the best bet for the job I think. He's always studying stuff about governments, and he's the one that got all the different rebel factions in the world to come together in a network, so I think people look up to him." Joey explained.

"I see." Seto suddenly pressed Joey up against a nearby tree, trapping him.

"What are you doing?" Joey asked nervously as Seto brought his face close to his.

"I told you I wanted to thank you properly." Seto purred in response, running his hands tantalizingly down Joey's bare arms, making goosebumps pop up where he'd touched.

"Huh?" Joey let out a very undignified squeak before Seto leaned in and crushed their lips together in a bruising, passionate kiss. He stiffened and then relaxed as Seto continued to kiss him in such a pleasurable manner, the taller man's taste like coffee, bittersweet and addicting. To Seto, Joey tasted like chocolate-covered strawberries, sweet with a bit of a sour bite to it.

"What was that?" Joey whispered when they parted, thankful that Seto was pressing him to a tree, because he felt like he was going to collapse.

"That was an invitation, will you accept?" Seto murmured in his ear, making Joey shiver in want. He stared up into Seto's eyes and found affection mingled with dark desire. Did he want to take that plunge with him? After a few silent minutes Joey opened his mouth.

"I accept."

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Wolf: Joey and Seto sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes love, then I think you know what comes next (insert lecherous wink here). On a slightly related note, please review!


	17. My Puppy

Wolf: I own nothing! This chapter contains lemony goodness! If you don't like... well I don't really know why you're here then, to tell you the truth, it is an M-rated fic for a reason after all.

Seto held Joey's hand as they made their way back to the base. Looking back he could see the blond's tanned face was decorated with a light blush, letting Seto know that Joey knew exactly what he had agreed to.

"Where's your room?" He asked Joey huskily, pulling him close when they got inside again. Joey shivered as his warm breath wafted over his ear.

"Th-this way." He stuttered and then took the lead, feeling Seto's eyes on him, smouldering with a heat he didn't think was possible with those cold blue orbs. Seto was still holding onto his hand, but was now rubbing his thumb in slow circles on the skin, making Joey feel all too warm.

When they arrived at his room, he was so glad he didn't share quarters, Seto closed the door behind them and then shoved Joey down onto the bed. Joey yelped in surprise, but was quickly silenced by Seto's mouth over his own, kissing with twice the passion as the first time.

Joey moaned, and Seto took the opportunity to plunge his tongue past those soft lips and map out the inside of Joey's mouth. Joey squirmed and whimpered, held down by Seto's strong body to the bed as the older man ravished his mouth, enticing him into a battle of tongues for dominance. Seto only pulled back when Joey submitted to him and smirked down at the blond.

Golden eyes blinked up at him, grown hazy with desire. His mop of blond hair was spread about his head in a wild halo and his cheeks were still tinged pink and his lips swollen from kisses. A more erotic sight Seto had never seen in his life and he was quickly becoming very aroused.

"God, what you do to me puppy." He whispered huskily, pressing his lower body down onto Joey, making him gasp as their arousals came into contact. Joey threw his head back, moaning softly as Seto ground their hips together, teasing him. Seto latched his mouth onto Joey's throat, sucking at his pulse point.

"I've wanted this for some time, puppy." Seto murmured against his skin, before pulling back to admire the bright red hickey he'd left on his neck.

"Uh?" Hazy golden eyes blinked open and stared in confusion at Seto.

"It is so unbelievably sexy to have someone bite back." Seto murmured, undoing Joey's belt while he squirmed underneath him. "I would have taken you with me had I escaped." He said, blue eyes dark with lust. "I would have made you mine."

"Seto-AH!" Joey yelped, feeling Seto's hand reach underneath him and squeeze his now exposed ass cheek. When Seto had taken his pants and underwear off he didn't know and he was finding it hard to think with Seto touching him so intimately. Seto's other hand was undoing the buttons on Joey's shirt, exposing his muscular chest.

Seto smirked at the soft whimper that escaped Joey's lips when he lightly pinched one of his nipples. He squeezed a little harder on Joey's ass cheek, making the smaller squeal and arch up. He lowered his head and took the nipple not being teased by his fingers into his mouth, making Joey cry out. His puppy was so sensitive.

Joey suddenly reached out and pulled Seto onto the bed with him, rolling them over so that he was on top instead. Seto allowed this, looking up at Joey with heavy-lidded eyes as the blond pulled his shirt off and slid his hands over the pale skin that was revealed. Joey leaned down and nipped Seto's ear, earning a soft moan from the former Alpha.

"I'm not going to let you have all the fun." He murmured huskily in his ear before lowering his mouth to take in a nipple, making Seto arch his back upwards in pleasure.

"Ahh, puppy." Seto's husky exclamation sent shivers down Joey's spine as he teased the ex-Hellhound with his hands and tongue. When he'd had enough of Joey's teasing he flipped them back over and pulled Joey into another searing kiss.

"Do you have anything that will make this easier?" Seto asked as he pushed Joey's legs up. Joey blinked at him in bewilderment, but then blushed and shook his head when he realized what Seto meant. "Hmm.." Seto thought a moment and then shoved his fingers into Joey's mouth. Joey got the idea and began to lick and suck at the long, narrow digits, the feel of his tongue making Seto harder yet.

He pulled them away and caught Joey's lips in another kiss as he slid one finger into him. Joey tensed, but Seto murmured soothingly to him while he moved it in and out, stretching the smaller male. Joey let out a whine of complaint when two more fingers were added and Seto massaged his hip in an apologetic manner while his fingers searched for that special little spot deep inside.

Joey let out a strangled yell, throwing his head back as intense burning pleasure raced through his entire body. Seto prodded that spot a few more times, smirking as Joey's cries grew louder. He then removed his fingers, earning a soft whimper of disappointment from Joey.

"This is going to hurt for a minute." Seto warned, gripping Joey's hips and positioning himself. Joey looked up at him with gorgeous honey-coloured eyes and nodded his head. Seto smiled and slowly began to push himself inside, moaning softly as Joey's muscles contracted around him, attempting to push the intruder out.

Joey bit his lip harshly, trying to deal with the stinging pain from his entrance and the dull pain in his lower back. Seto moved his hands to lace them with Joey and leaned his head down to whisper words of encouragement in his ear as he seated himself fully inside.

Joey panted slightly as the pain slowly faded away, leaving the strange, but not unpleasant, feeling of having Seto inside him. He hesitantly rolled his hips and then grinned when Seto let out a faint moan in response. He did it again, and Seto growled softly, gripping Joey's hips possessively.

Joey gasped as Seto slowly pulled out until only his tip was left inside and then thrust back in with a snap of his hips. Pain-laced pleasure raced in his veins as his prostate was assaulted with each sharp thrust and he gasped, digging his nails into Seto's shoulders as the overwhelming sensations left him blind to anything but the man giving him so much pleasure.

Seto gasped and shuddered, he couldn't believe how wonderful this felt, and how good it felt to be the one inciting the gasps and cries of pleasure from the beautiful body below him. He could feel himself coming close to release and so reached in between their sweaty bodies to grasp at Joey's erection, pumping it in time with his thrusts.

"Seto-ah! I'm going to-AH!" Joey screamed as Seto squeezed the erection in his hand, pushing him over the edge. His orgasm rolled over him, blinding him and making him shake uncontrollably. The feeling of Seto's seed bursting inside him only heightened the euphoria and he mewled out quietly, completely exhausted.

Seto pulled out and lowered his body down onto the bed, rolling over so he didn't crush Joey and taking the blond into his arms. He kissed Joey's flushed cheek and Joey responded by wrapping his arms around him and nuzzling close.

"Do you mean it when you say you want to make you yours, do you mean it for, like, forever?" Joey asked after a couple minutes. Seto looked down at him in surprise.

"I thought I made that clear just now." He said. Joey shrugged.

"Sex doesn't always mean anything." He mumbled. Seto tilted his face up to meet his eyes.

"For me it does. I don't throw my affections around needlessly, not after the kind of training I've done." He informed Joey. "When I tell you I mean for you to be mine, I mean it, understand?" Joey happily nuzzled him again.

"Ok."

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Wolf: Short, but who cares? I don't. Please review!


	18. Do you Like That?

Wolf: Because I'm feeling generous, more lemons! I own nothing!

"Hi Joey." Yugi greeted Joey as he headed to the cafeteria for breakfast. Joey gave him a cheerful, if tired, smile. Yugi suddenly paused, noticing something odd about the way Joey was walking. "You're limping! What happened?"

"Oh, uh, me and Seto, we, uh..." Yugi tilted his head in confusion as Joey turned beet-red before mumbling something that sounded like 'sex'.

"Why would you let him hurt you like that?" Yugi asked, aghast. Joey looked down at him in surprise and then his eyes widened.

"Oh, I think we need to have a private talk." Joey said, grabbing Yugi's arm and pulling him through the tunnels. Joey took him outside to the temple where he'd first come in and sat down on the steps with him.

"Keith raping you was the only sexual experience you'd ever had, wasn't it?" Joey asked. Yugi looked down and nodded, deeply ashamed. "It's not like that if the person you're having sex with cares about you."

"But you're still hurting." Yugi pointed out, somewhat petulantly.

"The pain isn't bad, and believe me it's worth the amount of pleasure you get." Joey replied.

"What do you mean?" Yugi asked.

"I mean, sex is supposed to be pleasurable for all involved, and it is if you do it right." Joey replied. "I let Seto do me, and I'll let him do it again because it only hurts a little and the pleasure more than makes up for that. Trust me, Yami is head over heels for you, he wants to make this good for you."

"So you're saying I should stop pushing him away?" Yugi asked.

"No, I'm saying you should give it a chance, and if you get too scared, I know that he'll back off again." Joey replied. "I just want you to know there's nothing to be scared of when it comes to Yami." Yugi looked away, up into the burning sun, before replying.

"I'll think about what you've told me."

%&%&%&%

Yugi looked up as Yami walked into their bedroom, nose in one of his reports yet again. "How was your day?" Yugi asked from his bed, where he was once again reading.

"Oh, the usual." Yami shrugged, putting his reports down. He moved over to Yugi's bed and climbed on top of it, crawling over to his little lover. Yugi put down his book in anticipation and gripped Yami's upper arms as he kissed him passionately, pushing him down onto the bed. Yugi was used to this and accepted it without quarrel.

Yami was gentle as always, lovingly nibbling at Yugi's bottom lip to get him to open his mouth. Yugi obliged and moaned quietly at the feel of Yami's tongue running over every inch of the inside of his mouth. Yami's hands teasingly ran up his sides, making him squirm like they always did.

"Ah, Yami." Yugi groaned when the crimson-eyed man released him from the kiss while rubbing his nipples through his shirt. Yami smirked and latched his lips onto Yugi's neck, sucking at the pulse point there and feeling the blood pump faster with his ministrations. Yugi's face was already decorated with a dark red blush, making him look even more adorable than he already was.

Yami allowed his hands to trail lower, into uncertain territory. Every time he'd tried to touch Yugi below the belt, the smaller ex-Hellhound would tense up and fight him off. He'd learned to back off before Yugi started fighting, but he still hoped for the day that Yugi would let him continue.

Yami carefully slid his hands under Yugi, onto his back to feel the soft, though scarred skin there. He could feel muscle flexing underneath the skin and took a moment to massage along Yugi's spine, getting him to relax a little. Once he had Yugi with his eyes closed in bliss he moved his hands downward to cup his ass cheeks and paused.

Yugi opened his deep purple eyes and looked up at him. "Keep...keep going." He whispered huskily. Yami just about had a heart attack out of surprise.

"Are you sure?" He murmured, kissing the tip of Yugi's nose. Yugi closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them again, looking at Yami lovingly.

"I want to try." He said. "But if I get really scared..."

"I'll back off, don't you worry." Yami promised. Yugi nodded and Yami kissed him soundly while gently squeezing Yugi's buttocks, making him buck in surprise. "Do you like that?" Yami asked in Yugi's ear. Yugi nodded and gasped when Yami squeezed again. Yami then lifted his hands and began to undo the buttons on Yugi's shirt, keeping their eyes locked the entire time.

Yugi shivered as Yami's warm hands grazed his bare stomach, rubbing and teasing the skin until it warmed to match the heat of the hands touching it. He mewled when those fingers tweaked his nipples, teasing them to hardness.

"Do you like that?" Yami's voice was husky, filled with desire.

"Yes..." Yugi whispered in reply, barely able to think anymore. The hands touching him headed south again until they encountered his belt. There they paused, and then began to undo it. Yami kept his eyes locked with Yugi's, waiting for any sign that Yugi was becoming uncomfortable. Yugi merely squirmed slightly, finding his pants were suddenly too tight.

The pants were slowly eased off, and Yugi could see that his boxers had tented quite considerably. Yami noticed as well and rubbed his hand over the bulge, making Yugi moan softly in pleasure.

"Do you like that?" Yami asked again. Yugi could only nod in pleasure. He gasped when Yami lowered his body onto his, rubbing their clothed members together.

"Y-Yami!" Yugi stuttered out. Yami ground their lower bodies together, loving the breathless moans that escaped his lover's lips at the treatment. He continued his slow torture, using his hands to play with Yugi's nipples again as Yugi cried out in pleasure.

"Do you like this?" Yugi gasped and nodded his head. "Do you want me to take it further?" Yugi looked up at him, considering his question. Yami stopped his motions to allow Yugi to think without lust clouding his mind. Yugi felt love swell up in him at how kind Yami was with him.

"Yes." He answered in a small whisper. "I do want to go further." Yami stared into his eyes a moment longer, making sure Yugi wasn't just doing this because Yami wanted it. He finally moved, pushing his hips roughly into Yugi's, inciting a breathless cry of pleasure. Yami continued this torture for a moment more before lifting off Yugi.

Keeping his eyes on Yugi's face he slowly pulled Yugi's boxers down, freeing his erection. Yugi gasped as a warm finger touched his length, slowly running up its entirety. He whined at the teasing, wanting more. Yami smirked and grasped the erection fully, stroking it slowly as Yugi arched up at his touch. Yugi had never felt so much pleasure before in his life and he found himself drowning in it.

"Do you like that?" Yami asked him once again, crimson eyes dark with desire as he watched his lover thrash underneath him. Yugi nodded, unable to speak as he gasped and shuddered with pleasure as Yami alternately stroked and squeezed his member. Yami used his free hand to undo his own pants, which were very uncomfortably tight, and shimmied out of them and his boxers, leaving his lower body bare.

"Yugi, are you certain you want to take this further?" Yami asked once more, stopping his movements. When Yugi looked up at him, he could see the trust in his lust-darkened eyes as he nodded. Yami smiled and planted a soft kiss on his lips. He then got up, throwing his shirt off in the process, and rummaged around in the drawer by his bed.

Yugi looked at him in confusion, and couldn't help but admire his toned backside. Yami turned back to him, a small tube in hand, and smirked. "Like what you see?" He teased, sauntering ever so slowly back to Yugi. Yugi gulped and nodded, throat dry with nerves and anticipation. Yami climbed on top of him again and eased his thighs apart.

"This may hurt a little, but I promise it will get better, alright?" Yami whispered, spreading lube over his fingers. Yugi looked up and nodded at him, eyes heavy-lidded with desire, his skin flushed with arousal, and sweat making his body glisten. It was quite possibly the most erotic thing Yami had ever seen in his life.

Yami stroked the skin around Yugi's entrance, feeling his lover tense up slightly. He softly whispered sweet nothings in his ear and once Yugi was relaxed again, pushed a single finger inside. Yugi tensed up considerably, not because it hurt, but it felt strange and he couldn't help thinking about Keith. Yami rubbed his hip with his free hand, waiting for Yugi to relax again.

"Look at me, Yugi." Yugi's eyes popped open at Yami's command. "It will make it easier if you look at me." Yugi nodded and tried his best to relax, even when Yami started moving that finger inside him, stretching him for what was to come. He let out a faint noise of fear and pain when Yami slid another inside, but was soothed by the gorgeous crimson eyes locked on his own.

When Yami had three fingers in and stretching Yugi he began searching for the little spot inside his lover that would make this all worthwhile. Yugi threw his head back and let out a passionate cry, letting Yami know he'd found exactly what he was looking for.

"Do you like that?" Yami asked, prodding Yugi's prostate again. Yugi whimpered in ecstasy, just barely able to nod his head through the pleasure that clouded his reason. Yami chuckled and removed his fingers, earning a soft whine from Yugi. He carefully spread lube liberally over his erection and then rolled Yugi and him over, so that Yugi was straddling him.

"You have control, Little One." Yami whispered, gently gripping Yugi's hips. "We go as slow, or as fast as you want." Yugi groaned in want. With helpful pointers from Yami he got his lover's erection lined up with his entrance. He gave Yami a nervous look, but was reassured by the tender smile he got in return. Taking a deep breath he slowly lowered himself down onto the thick member.

Yami groaned in pleasure as tight heat surrounded his throbbing erection. Yugi groaned too, but in slight pain. He paused, panting, trying to get used to it and banishing images of his rape from his mind. "It's ok, Yugi, go as slow as you need to." Yami's husky voice encouraged him and he lowered himself even further, gradually sliding down until Yami was buried to the hilt inside him.

"Oh gods, you're so tight." Yami whispered desperately, resisting the urge to roll over and fuck Yugi into the mattress. This was for Yugi, and his own libido be damned. Yugi squirmed and gritted his teeth as pain assaulted his lower back. He breathed out slowly, it wasn't the pain that bothered him so much, it was the memories that he associated with it.

Yami could see the inner struggle in Yugi's eyes and rubbed Yugi's hips soothingly to help him through it. Yugi finally looked down at him without fear or pain in his eyes and Yami let out a breathless moan as Yugi slowly lifted off him and pushed back in, easing Yami's erection in and out of him. Yami gripped his hips lightly, just letting Yugi have control.

Yugi groaned softly, Joey was right, it did feel good. He could feel Yami making little thrusts upwards, his control slipping. Yami's eyes were dark with pleasure and need. Yugi felt his heart skip a beat at the sight; he was the one giving Yami so much pleasure. He moved faster, shuddering when his prostate was hit, and was gratified to see Yami's mouth open in a pant, pleasure taking over him.

Yami groaned, feeling his release coming close, and from the tightening of Yugi's muscles around him, so was he. So Yami took Yugi's erection in his hand and began to pump it in time with his thrusts. Yugi moaned and then shuddered, coming hard onto Yami's chest and hand. Yami thrust up once more hard and released as well, filling Yugi with his seed.

Shuddering from the aftershocks of the orgasm, Yugi slowly lowered his body onto Yami's, resting his head on Yami's chest. He then asked his crimson-eyed lover one question.

"Did you like that?"

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Wolf: I think that went well. What do you think?


	19. Celebration

**Chapter 19: Celebration**

Wolf: I own nothing!

Yugi woke up feeling a little sore, and extremely sticky. He yawned and realized the surface he was lying on was moving in a steady up-down motion. Groggily he opened his eyes and stared into his lover's sleepy crimson orbs. He felt a warm thumb stroke at the skin on his lower back, where the soreness was the worst.

"Good morning, love." Yami whispered huskily, leaning up to give Yugi a peck on the lips. "How do you feel?"

"A little sore." Yugi admitted. "But it's not so bad, and it was worth it." Yami smiled then.

"I'm glad to hear that." Yami lifted a hand to brush stray bangs out of Yugi's eyes. "How is it that you are more beautiful every time I see your face?" Yugi's heart swelled at the lovingly spoken words, and the look of pure devotion in Yami's eyes. He lowered his head to kiss Yami ever so sweetly on the lips.

"I love you." He whispered against them. Yami's eyes glowed with adoration, making his heart skip a beat before warm arms wrapped around his waist, gently squeezing.

"I love you too." Yami replied warmly. "My little one, how I waited to hear those words from your lips." Yugi sighed and rested his head back on Yami's chest, enjoying the peace of the moment. After a moment he noticed that it was really uncomfortable to be lying in something so sticky.

"Ah, Yami?" Yami blinked open his eyes and raised an aristocratic brow at him. "Do you think we should get cleaned up?" Yami blinked at him again before realizing what he meant. His arms though stayed locked around Yugi's middle.

"Only if we can get clean together." He replied. Yugi blushed at the remark, but nodded all the same. Yami let him go and pulled on some loose, dirty clothes to go to the showers in while Yugi did the same. They each took a bundle of fresh clothes to put on when they were finished and headed to the communal showers.

It seemed like it was still fairly early, because the lights were not actually on yet, and there was not a soul in the hallways. It was kind of eerie, really, to have it so empty and quiet. Yugi found he much preferred the bustling of daytime.

The two of them slipped out of their clothes and into a shower cubicle together. Yami turned on the water, making sure it was good and warm, knowing the warmth would help Yugi's soreness. He watched Yugi smile, the water droplets cascading down his pale skin, washing away the evidence of their lovemaking.

As Yugi was reaching for the shampoo bottle it was suddenly snatched away from him. "Let me." Yami offered, pouring some of the shampoo onto his hands. Yugi nodded and Yami began working the shampoo into the thick, soft mess of spikes. Yugi hummed in appreciation, feeling his scalp being massaged by Yami's talented hands.

Yami gently pushed Yugi back under the spray to rinse and went to shampoo his own hair. Before he could Yugi had snatched the bottle and poured the liquid into his own hands. "Let me return the favour." Yugi whispered, reaching up to work the shampoo into Yami's hair. Yami closed his eyes and let his lover help him as he had done.

The two of them refrained from washing each other's bodies because they both knew what it would lead to, and by this point the lights had come on, meaning that the showers would be filled by others looking for their morning shower. Yami wasn't adverse to the idea of sex in the showers, but knew Yugi would be embarrassed and so wisely kept his hands to himself; Yugi could still kick his butt if he chose.

The two of them towelled off and were dressed in time for the first of the other rebels to wander into the bathroom, half-asleep and looking for the shower. Yami wrapped an arm around Yugi's waist and escorted his lover to the cafeteria for breakfast. Joey, Seto and Mokuba wandered in a couple minutes later and joined them.

"Hey, Yugi, are you excited for tonight?" Joey asked as he sat down with a full platter of food.

"Excited for what?" Yugi asked in confusion.

"The festival to welcome the rains." Joey explained. "Yami said you wanted to dance in it."

"I'd forgotten all about that." Yami murmured. "I'm sorry, things have just been so crazy lately. Is everything in place for it at least?"

"Yeah, lucky for you, you got a lot of good people around here." Joey grinned. Yami chuckled.

"Don't I know it."

%&%&%&%

"What did you say this celebration was for again?" Yugi asked as they and the rest of the rebels filed out of the base into the star-studded night. It was perfectly clear and a full moon gazed down on the revellers as they cavorted their way to the banks of the Nile.

"It's an old custom, from the times when local agriculture was a way of life, to welcome in the rains that would allow the crops to grow." Yami explained. "I know it doesn't look like rain right now, but the celebration is not only to welcome the rain, but to appeal to the gods to bring us the rain."

"Do you do sacrifices then?"

"Already done." Rishid replied cheerfully. "There's a lot of us that still believe in the old customs, you see."

"Tonight is all about the celebration." Yami added. "We dance, feast, sing, play in the water, and hope that it rains while we're out so we could dance in the rain."

Yugi looked up at the clear, starry sky. "Doesn't look like we'll be dancing in the rain tonight."

"The gods work in mysterious ways." Rishid replied. "We may yet see rain by the end of the night."

The crackle and dancing glow of a bonfire drew the rebels on to the edge of the river. A few were already there, beating on large drums whose sound reverberated in their bodies, set to the beating of their hearts. Whoops of joy echoed in the air as revellers began to dance without abandon, leaping and spinning round and round.

"Come on!" Yami cried, grabbing a hold of Yugi's hand and dragging him into a chain of dancers doing a conga line. There was no rhyme or reason to the dancing, the rebels had come from all walks of life and celebrated in their own ways. Joey demonstrated a talent for hip-hop, while a couple of the women belly-danced to the delight of many of the men.

Yugi could barely keep track of all the dances; he kept getting whirled from one to another. It didn't matter how good he was, he was welcome in all and soon found the rhythm himself, whooping eagerly as he leapt in time with Yami. The two of them danced from one style to another, never far apart and almost always touching.

Soon Rishid's prediction came to pass as dark clouds stole across the sky, obscuring the moon and the stars. None of the dancers ceased their movements, not even when thunder boomed across the sky like the drum of the gods themselves, and lightning lit them in black and white.

Howls of joy and laughter rang out as the rain came pouring down, dousing the fire and soaking everyone instantly. The dancing became even more feverish if possible as the ecstatic dancers celebrated the return of the rain.

Yugi realized as he danced that it was not only rain that they celebrated as they danced in the wet, warm night. It was a celebration of new life, ushering in the birth of something new. In a way, he thought, this festival not only welcomed in the rain, but the change they were going to bring the world. It was a celebration of the new world to come.

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Wolf: Review plz!


	20. Moments of Relaxation

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"How long are we going to make the Overlord stew?" Seto asked. It had been a month since the rain celebration, and they had yet to do much but steal and destroy Hellhound bases under the Overlord's nose.

"Soon, Seto." Yami replied. "We want him scared, we want him irrational, but most of all, we want the Hellhounds doubting that he can truly lead."

"I think by this point they already are." Seto grumbled.

"Patience, Seto." Yami urged. "We'll only wind up hurting ourselves if we strike at the wrong time."

"Our stockpile of weapons is growing, in all rebel factions as well." Yugi added. "I've gotten reports saying that more and more people will support an uprising when it comes."

"Excellent, that's good news." Yami praised. "What of infiltration into the nuclear weapons facility?"

"I believe that we have at least five of ours stationed there and ready to disable the bombs if necessary."

"Good, we don't want the Overlord blowing up any cities." Yami said, shuddering slightly. "Air support for the Overlord should be almost non-existent if all locations are hit at the same time, but to be sure, do we have people in there as well?" Yugi looked at the reports in front of him and nodded. "Good, it's almost time."

"When?" Seto asked eagerly.

"Soon." Yami repeated. "I need to be sure of everything before we do anything." He said, rubbing his temples. "Why don't you two go for awhile?" He sighed. "I still have a lot of work to do."

Seto went immediately, presumably to go find Joey, but Yugi hesitated at the door. Yami had been working so hard lately, conferring with the other rebel bases, working out strategies and going through reports. He'd come in most nights exhausted, but he'd always wake up so early to get started once again. He needed to relax, and if he wouldn't do it himself, then Yugi would have to help him.

He closed the door and walked back over to the desk Yami was working at and moved behind Yami's chair. He placed his hands on Yami's shoulders. Yami tensed and looked back to give him a bewildered look. Yugi smiled and leaned down to kiss Yami while beginning to massage his lover's shoulders.

"Yugi, I don't have time..." Yami's protest turned into a soft groan as Yugi's hands worked the tension out of his back. "Gods, how do you know how to do that?" Yami asked weakly, feeling his body melt under the tender ministrations.

"You should know as well as I." Yugi replied. "Hellhounds have to know the human body, so they can cause pain. It only takes a different type of touch to cause pleasure instead."

Yami moaned in reply. Yugi's hands had travelled from his shoulders to his back and were pressing and kneading and rubbing at the muscles there, turning Yami into a puddle of goo. He rested his head on the desk and closed his eyes, deciding just to let Yugi do what he wanted to do, because it just felt so good. When Yugi was finished, he felt warm and refreshed.

"What was that for?" He asked, sitting back up again and snagging Yugi around the waist.

"You've been working yourself so hard lately." Yugi replied as he was pulled down into Yami's lap. "You need to take time to relax or you'll work yourself to death."

"Hmm, no chance of that while you're around." Yami replied, sliding his hands down to cup Yugi's ass cheeks. "I think I know something else you can do to help me relax."

%&%&%&%

Seto wandered around the rebel base, looking for his brother and his puppy. Mokuba had bonded easily with Joey, probably because Joey had been the one to rescue him, and tagged along behind the blond whenever he couldn't follow Seto.

He found the two of them out by the Nile, Joey helping Mokuba with his reading, a skill that had fallen to the wayside being an orphan and on the streets. Mokuba was proving to be a fast learner, almost as quick as his older brother was. He made Seto proud.

"How are you two doing?" He asked, coming up to them. They looked up and grinned, making room on the large, flat rock jutting over the river that they were sitting on.

"We're doing good." Joey replied. "Mokie's getting a lot better with his reading." He praised, ruffling the long black hair that Seto had failed to convince Mokuba to cut. The younger brother thought he looked cool, like a swash-buckling pirate or a rogue, and vehemently resisted every attempt to cut it. Thankfully he was also meticulous about cleaning, so the dark hair gleamed and wasn't ever tangled.

Joey himself had become a staple in Seto's life. He'd tried, without much success to make Joey share his room with him. Joey liked his privacy, and his space, and Seto supposed the blond wanted to see exactly where things were going between them before he did something so final. They still had sex, and it was fantastic, but Seto would often find himself frustrated when Joey would refuse his advances.

"You have an over-active libido." Mokuba had told him calmly once. Seto had been surprised and a little disturbed by his brother's easy manner towards sex, but that was only because he considered him the little baby brother and not the young adult that he was. It would take some time to change that view.

Seto wandered over to the two of them and took the offered seat beside Joey. His lover and brother turned back to the book that Mokuba was soldiering through and continued to read. Mokuba was getting better, he hardly stumbled over words and was learning to sound things out before he asked for help.

Seto quietly slid an arm around Joey's waist, rubbing his thumb against the tanned, muscular stomach. He felt Joey shiver a little at his touch and smirked; his lover was still so sensitive. After a few minutes he leaned forward and touched his lips to Joey's neck. Joey turned to glare at him.

"Do you mind? I'm trying to work here." Joey growled, though there was little bite in his words and Seto's smirk grew wider. Boldly he caught Joey's chin and mashed their lips together in a bruising kiss. Joey tried to push him away for a moment, but then relaxed, pressing his hands against Seto's chest. Seto deepened the kiss, only pulling away momentarily to allow the two of them to breathe.

"If you two are going to do that, I'm going to leave." Mokuba grumbled, closing his book with a snap and sliding off the rock. He turned to give them both a lecherous wink and then ambled on his way.

"I really find it very weird that he's so calm about sexual things." Seto commented, shifting the two of them so that Joey was in his lap.

"He's sixteen, that's all they ever think about at that age." Joey chuckled. Seto hummed softly and pressed his lips to the back of Joey's neck. "Nice you could get away for a little while." Joey commented.

"Well, with all the preparations and stresses going on, I think we could all use a moment to relax." Seto replied. "And I think I know just how you can help me with that." Joey groaned and rolled his eyes, but allowed Seto to press him down onto the stone to help him 'relax'.

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Wolf: Review plz!


	21. Before the Storm

Wolf: I own nothing!

The time had come, for all their carefully laid plans to be put into play. The leaders of the rebellion, and the former Hellhounds, Yami, Seto and Yugi were headed over to America where the Overlord had his base of operations, to take him down themselves. The rest of the rebels would lead a synchronized attack on all Hellhound bases, both big and small in every area they could.

The people would follow; they had been shown that the Overlord's power was not absolute, and that even the Hellhounds were not always the mindless monsters they seemed to be. The Hellhounds would likely be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people attacking them. The air force bases were covered and nuclear sites as well. Everything was ready; they just had to take that last step.

"We'll be landing soon." Yami murmured, looking out the window. He tapped his foot on the floor of the plane nervously. Yugi placed his hand on his lover's knee and smiled at him reassuringly.

"We'll be fine." He told Yami. "We've planned everything, and once this is all over, we can try to relax a little."

"Actually, after is when the stress really begins." Seto quipped, slightly annoyed at not having his puppy or his brother with him. Joey and Mokuba had opted to help out with the local rebel forces in Egypt instead of going to America. "We have to put together a new government, make sure we get aid to those that need it, track down the last of the Hellhounds and figure out what to do with them, all that and more."

"Thank you for those encouraging words, Seto." Yami told him sarcastically. Yugi squeezed his knee lightly and Yami gave him a reassuring smile in return. The plane began to descend, and Yami placed his hand over Yugi's, holding it gently so that they were connected, at least a little bit.

"We've planned this for months and for years, we can't allow anything to go wrong." Yami said as the plane gently bumped along the landing strip. "Stick to the plan, if all else fails, go for the Overlord. If he falls, the Hellhounds will follow, especially if the Alpha is the one to kill him."

"Quit talking like you're going to die or something." Seto told him sternly. "I sure as hell am not going to run this world by myself."

"Thank you, Seto, nice to know you care so much." Yami replied.

"He's right though." Yugi added. "You've been planning this for years; we'll make it through together." Yami smiled and kissed his hand lightly, making Seto growl in envy for want of his own lover. "And you'll see Joey soon, Seto. The faster we get this done, the faster we get back to him."

"Fine." Seto groused, taking off his seatbelt and standing up. "I better get a damned good welcome when I get back though." Yugi and Yami exchanged looks as they stood up; they both knew what Seto's idea of a good welcome was.

It was late at night as they stole through the nearly empty airport terminal and onto the dark streets of what once was Washington DC, the home of America's most powerful men and women, and now the headquarters of the Overlord.

The three rebels quietly slunk along the streets, heading for the rebel base in the city, right under the Overlord's nose. The alleyways they walked through were littered with garbage and other wastes, but it was alright, it meant the Hellhounds would only venture there if necessary and the rebels were careful to keep themselves hidden.

An old, run-down movie theatre drew them in and they made their way past the rotting timbers and boarded up doors and made their way deeper into the interior. Old, falling apart signs over the doors still advertised the movies last played while moth-eaten curtains drifted in a breeze wafting in from broken windows.

They paused in front of one theatre in particular, this one advertizing V for Vendetta. Yami smirked at the subliminal message at work and then walked into the theatre. There was almost no light, and the empty, broken and moth-eaten seats and the blank, empty screen made for an eerie scene. The three of them walked slowly up to the front of the theatre, their footsteps echoing oddly in the vacant room.

There was a raised platform up in front of the screen and Yami, Yugi and Seto went to stand on it. Yami tapped out the letter V in Morse code with his foot and waited. The platform shuddered to life with a groan and screeches of well-worn mechanics and slowly sank into the floor. The dimly lit theatre was replaced by the softly lit glow of an underground tunnel, this one lined with wood and steel.

A man was waiting for them as the platform shuddered to a stop. He was young and tall, but his shaggy hair was completely white and had these odd, horn-like structures at the front. His narrow russet eyes narrowed further at the sight of them from within a pale, calm face.

"It's about time you got here." He grumbled as they stepped off the platform, allowing it to rise once more.

"Bakura, I presume?" Yami asked, remembering his intelligence reports from this region.

"That's me." Bakura sighed. "So are we actually doing this then?" When Yami nodded a feral grin lit the pale man's face, turning it into something predatory, wolf-like.

"The Overlord is mine though." Seto growled. Bakura looked at him, sizing him up, eyes narrowing in obvious disapproval.

"And why should he be?" He demanded.

"I was the Alpha; the Overlord used his twisted methods to make me a monster, and nearly killed my baby brother. I want to repay him for what he did to me." Seto spat venomously. Bakura gave him another look-over and after a few moments a look of grudging respect flitted across his face and he nodded reluctantly in acquiescence.

"We leave at eleven thirty, and the attack goes on at midnight." Bakura looked to Yami to confirm. Yami nodded his head in approval. "We'll use the tunnels, the secrets passages that were once used to transport the president if attacks ever came on the White House. The target is the base of operations, the training facility and headquarters of the Overlord, where once the White House stood."

A few of the older men and women, who remembered what the White House had stood for, growled in anger. When the White House had been demolished early on, it had been like a physical blow to many of the men and women in the country at the time. The White House was a symbol of their freedom and their pride, and having it taken away was like taking away a piece of themselves.

"So that leaves us an hour or so to rest up, go over strategies again, make sure we have everything..." Yami trailed off, looking up at the ceiling.

"Pray." A young man with snow white hair and doe-brown eyes added to Yami's litany. Yami looked at him and smiled slightly.

"Of course, pray." He sighed, running a hand through his spiky hair. "May the gods find it in themselves to favour our endeavour." People were trickling in and out, doing their own thing by this point, waiting, watching and preparing for the battle to come.

"How could they not? We will ease the suffering of this world." Bakura said.

"The gods do not think like mortals do, I do not know how they will see this." Yami replied. "But, hopefully they will find our intentions true enough." Yami sat down on the floor, drawing Yugi down with him as well as they waited for the time to come. Seto leaned against the wall, and the young, doe-eyed man was captured by Bakura and held in his arms gently.

"What's your name?" Yugi asked the boy.

"I'm Ryou." The boy answered, giving him a timid smile. "You three were all Hellhounds, weren't you?" Yugi, Yami and Seto all nodded. "So was Bakura, though he was a Gamma."

"How'd you get out of it?" Seto asked, surprised that someone else had become jaded with the Hellhound mentality.

"I met Ryou." Bakura replied shortly. "He'd been brought in for questioning, in connection with the rebels because he'd been seen smuggling goods."

"They were actually glass figurines, for a friend of the family, and so very hard to find." Ryou added. "I wasn't in any way connected with the rebels at the time, but you know how the Hellhounds work."

"Guilty until proven innocent." Yami said softly. Ryou nodded.

"Bakura was my interrogator, and at first he was as cruel as you would expect, but then I fell ill." Ryou looked to Bakura.

"Something about the plea in his eyes and the fragility of his little body spoke to me and I couldn't just watch him suffer. In secret I began bringing him medicine and in return he told me about his life, about the way things were in the world. It shocked me to know just how bad things were and yet the Hellhounds always had so much, more than we needed in fact." Bakura sighed. "Of course I couldn't risk asking questions about this, but one day I simply got too fed up, and they had handed Ryou over to someone else for interrogation, and I just took him and went looking for the nearest rebel base, took over and that was that."

Ryou smiled as Bakura lightly kissed the back of his neck. "Of course he missed the parts where he clumsily wooed me and won my heart. It wasn't hard for me to fall for him though, he'd given up his comfortable, stable life for me, how could I not?" He added. Bakura suddenly looked down as his watch beeped an alarm. He grinned at all of them.

"It's time."

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Wolf: Review plz!


	22. Breaking Storm

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The rebels quickly mobilized, distributing weapons and bulletproof vests. Bakura cornered his little lover, Ryou, and Yugi got a chance to hear their conversation, though he tried hard not to.

"You need to stay here Ryou; you can't fight like the others." Bakura whispered tenderly, a stark contrast from the gruff demeanour that he had shown the others.

"But I want to be with you." Ryou murmured, wrapping his arms around Bakura's waist. "I don't want you to die and I never got to see you again."

"I'm not going to die, don't you think that." Bakura replied. "I know how these assholes work, remember?"

"I know, but-" Ryou was silenced by a soft, tender kiss. When they parted Bakura looked down deeply into Ryou's tearful eyes.

"I promise, with all my heart and soul, that I will come back to you in one piece." He whispered gently, but also fiercely.

"I'll hold you to that." Ryou whispered back, tears silently sliding down his cheeks. "I love you."

"I love you to, my little bunny-rabbit." Bakura replied, rubbing their noses together fondly. Ryou let out a hiccupping sob and then released Bakura, allowing him to shrug into the bulletproof vest offered to him. Bakura gave him one last hard but loving kiss before whirling away and leading the way through the tunnels.

Yugi, Seto and Yami flanked Bakura as the wooden and steel construction of the tunnels melted into stone. Bakura explained about the tunnels in a quiet whisper as they went along.

"These tunnels go to all the important buildings in the capital city and even some outside of the capital. There's a reinforced bunker we use for storage that would protect the president if a threat were to arise." He said quietly. "The tunnels were mostly filled up with stone when these rebels started working, took them years to clear the right ones. The foundations in the Hellhound headquarters are the original White House and in some locations the flooring and walls are still intact. Took some time but we finally found an entry point that wasn't all closed up."

"How come you never attacked then?" Seto asked. Bakura shrugged.

"We might have gotten so far, but we didn't have the backing of an entire world of rebels, and knew it would be a suicide mission to try if we couldn't guarantee that we took out all the Hellhounds."

"A wise choice." Yami replied. "And if you had tried it while the Overlord still had an Alpha and Beta, you would have surely failed."

"Exactly." Bakura agreed. "I remember seeing you two fight, it was the most exhilarating thing and yet the most frightening thing I'd ever seen in all my life. I never saw you fight," He informed Yugi. "But if you were the replacement Beta, then you must be good as well."

"Not quite good enough to get me, though." Yami grinned. Yugi elbowed him in the ribs.

"I got you eventually." He replied, referring not to a physical capture, but the capture of Yami's heart. Yami gazed back at him, his smile softening.

"We got each other."

"Save the lovey-dovey crap for when we've killed the Overlord, please." Seto groaned, glaring at the two of them. They both rolled their eyes at him, but left the 'lovey-dovey' for later. They found themselves eventually climbing an incline in the passage, heading towards the unseen surface that lay above them. The silence among the rebels was absolute; they were right under the Hellhounds' feet right now.

At the end of the tunnel Bakura put his fingers to his lips and lifted his hands above his head in the low tunnel. A piece of the ceiling moved as he pushed and he slid it away, poking his head cautiously out of the hole created. He lowered his head again, giving the rest of them a thumbs-up before hauling himself out of the hole and into the Hellhound headquarters.

Yami helped Yugi get out, because he was so small, and then climbed out himself. They found themselves in the lowest level of the building, in a storage unit used for weapons. "Let me guess, you've been using the tunnels to smuggle weapons from here?" Yami whispered as he watched some of the rebels exchange their weapons for the better ones around them.

"Yup." Bakura replied cheerily. "We only took in small quantities to avoid suspicion of course." He got the rebels organized again and headed up the stairs, all of them taking care to move as silently as possible. The more Hellhounds they took down by surprise, the less there were to put up an organized fight.

They came to the door that would lead them into the base of operations, quiet for the time of the night, and waited for the exact strike of midnight to begin the attack. All of them used the pause to compose themselves or offer up one last prayer to any listening gods. This was the moment of truth and all of them were frightened.

Bakura's watch let out a quiet beep and he favoured them all with a feral grin before opening the door and charging into the Overlord's center of power. The rest followed, but it was not a chaotic charge filled with battle cries and thundering feet, no, the rebels slipped in as quietly as ever, determined to have their presence go unnoticed for as long as they could.

They had emerged into a corridor and used the sharp corners to their advantage, peering around them to see if their enemies were coming. The rear rebels made sure no one could sneak up on them from behind. They encountered very few people in the halls; it was very late after all. Those that did find them were quickly silenced with a slitted throat. They left a bloody trail behind, bodies left where they fell, carelessly thrown like toys.

The control room was where all hell would break loose. No doubt by this time Hellhounds were being roused by alarms from bases all over the world and scrambling like mad to figure out what was going on. They could hear raised voices down the corridor, the normal calm tone of Hellhound voices broken in panic by the unprecedented, coordinated attack on all corners of the globe.

The rebels burst into the control room, finally letting loose their battle roars of rage and defiance against the oppressive rule of the Overlord and his pet dogs the Hellhounds. Everyone in the room looked up, stoic demeanours quickly turning to surprise as the armed and furious rebels thundered in, intent on taking their world back.

It wasn't until the first Hellhound was shot that the Hounds unfroze and began to fight back. The rebels had an advantage with their automatic weapons, but the Hellhounds were best at hand-to-hand combat, so any fights that broke out were fights for survival for the rebels. Each side fought like wolves, desperate, passionate, each opponent knowing that if they failed there was nothing left for them but death or imprisonment.

It was chaos as more and more Hellhounds were summoned by the alarms screaming in the halls, only to be cut down as fast as they came by the guns of the rebels. Those that survived the barrage found themselves fighting for their lives against men and women who had nothing else to live for but this moment, and no care what happened to them so long as change came.

Worst of all for the Hellhounds to see, and the sight of which sent many of the less brave scurrying for cover, was the sight of the Alpha and two Betas fighting against their own, knocking out and killing Hellhounds, the snarls on their faces terrible to see. Any who dared oppose them found themselves dead in minutes.

The battle was turning in the rebels' favour, and in a rare lull Seto's keen ears caught the sound of a familiar, hated voice yelling above the cacophony. He raised his eyes and saw the Overlord, his face red from screaming, staring down at the scene from an upper level of the room, his face twisted in fury. Seto bared his teeth and strove towards him, cutting down all who got in his path.

He took the stairs up, two at a time, his hatred and thoughts of revenge seeming to give him wings. He got to the top and stalked towards the Overlord. The man who had taken him away from his brother turned and muddy brown eyes widened in shock. Seto grinned nastily and spoke to him.

"Hello, Gozaburo."

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Wolf: Review plz!


	23. Tumultous Conclusion

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The Overlord's eyes narrowed as he stared at his adopted son. "I thought I taught you more respect than that, Alpha." He hissed, the two of them beginning to circle around each other.

"I am no longer Alpha; I am no longer the monster that you created." Seto growled back. "I am Seto once again, and I have come to repay you for everything you put me through."

"Think about this rationally, boy." Gozaburo cajoled as they continued to circle warily, two lions about to fight. "Who will run this world if not I, who can keep the people under control?"

"Oh, I think we can do a far better job." Seto smirked and then scowled again. "You just like playing king of the castle, you care nothing about the people, and they are suffering. Today that ends."

"You could be great." Gozaburo wheedled. "I could give you a quadrant of your own to rule, how about that?"

"I am not your little pet that you can win me over with treats." Seto spat. "I've seen the world that you've created and it is dark and cruel, and it doesn't have to be. But here's the big kicker, you sealed your fate when you failed to kill my brother." Gozaburo's eyes widened. "Oh yes, I know about that, and he's alive and well, no thanks to you."

"Be reasonable-"

"I'm done being reasonable, I'm done being cold and uncaring. I have a real purpose in life now, and the only thing standing in the way of our new world is you!" He let out a roar and charged his adopted father. Gozaburo reacted quickly, blocking the kick aimed at his head and driving a hard fist into Seto's belly.

Seto staggered back and countered the next punch, kicking Gozaburo in the leg at the same time. The Overlord grunted and kicked upwards, narrowly missing striking Seto in the balls. Seto snarled and punched at his head, but missed and then narrowly avoided a chop to the throat. He retaliated with a roundhouse kick to Gozaburo's side, driving the Overlord back a couple of steps.

They battled on, oblivious to the bigger battle below that was slowly winding down, the Hellhounds either captured, unconscious or dead. Many of the rebels were pausing to watch the former Alpha and the Overlord fight to the death. One intrepid rebel had turned on the video feed linking to all Hellhound bases in the world, and now the entire planet could watch as the two battled away.

Seto countered another strike to his head and then aimed a punch at Gozaburo's face while simultaneously moving to grab the leg that was threatening to kick him. Though Gozaburo could counter the punch, he wasn't fast enough to avoid having Seto catch his leg and hold it high, making him stagger. Seto grinned nastily and then viciously twisted the captive leg, breaking the calf.

Gozaburo let out a bellow of pain and when Seto let go, fell to the ground with an audible thud. Seto stood above him, panting softly, before hauling the Overlord to his feet and throwing him against the railing that overlooked the lower level. Gozaburo hung on to the bars of the railing for support, no longer a tyrant but a broken, powerless man, finally on display for all to see.

Seto took the pistol that had lain dormant in its holster the whole time and took it out, pointing it at his adopted father and tormentor's head. Gozaburo lifted his hands, placing them in a begging position as his muddy brown eyes widened with fear.

"Now, Overlord, your rule has come to an end." Seto whispered and pulled the trigger. The report of the weapon was deafening in the control room and in its wake the silence was absolute. Any Hellhound still standing was quelled by the loss of their leader. Most surrendered after that, having been trained to listen to orders, and having no one to give them orders anymore.

"We'll detain the Hellhounds for now, later we can figure out what to do with them." Bakura said quietly, panting. A long scrape along his cheek oozed blood slowly to the ground. "Think we'd better check in with all the other units?" He asked Yami. Yami nodded and most of the rebels took out a hand-held radio and got in contact with whatever other rebel base they had been assigned.

One by one they all lifted a hand, giving the universal sign for victory. Yami sagged in relief and wrapped an arm around Yugi's shoulders, kissing his forehead. "Let's get a message out, to everyone in the world through the Hellhound communications. Tell them that the Overlord's reign is over, and that if they are willing we will take their place as a government chosen by the people."

"Tell them we will bring back the economy, and re-open hospitals and colleges." Seto added. "We will rebuild what has been broken and get the world back on its feet."

"Tell them we will give them until tomorrow to decide their answer, in the meantime, we must rest." Yami finished. The rebels scurried to do what he said, and while they did so medics who had hung back during the fighting came in to assess the wounded. Yugi had a shallow graze above his nipple and Yami had one on his calf, but for the most part the wounds among the rebels were either sparing, or fatal. Those that were dead were covered reverently, even the enemy dead, and plans were made for a funeral pyre once the sun was up.

Once they had been seen to, Bakura, Yami, Yugi and Seto headed back down to the rebel base, wanting a bed, and not wishing to sleep in a place that was a battlefield stained by blood. Wearily the four former Hellhounds trekked the long, lonely route down through the tunnels.

When they finally got back Bakura was immediately knocked head over heels by a very frantic, very happy Ryou. The smaller boy hugged Bakura and promptly burst into tears. "I-I-I was so worried!" Ryou hiccupped, squeezing tightly.

"I'm fine Ryou, I told you I would be fine, didn't I?" Bakura replied, sitting up and dumping Ryou in his lap.

"Yeah..." Ryou sniffled, nuzzling against Bakura. "But it was still scary."

"I know." Bakura murmured. "It was scary thinking I might never see you again, and that's why I made sure I didn't die."

"You make it sound so simple." Ryou laughed. Bakura grinned and kissed him gently. Yami, Yugi and Seto took their leave of the two lovers, allowing them the privacy the moment dictated. Eager rebels showed them to empty rooms, Seto in one, Yugi and Yami sharing the other.

"What do you think they'll choose?" Yugi murmured as he lay on top of his lover, head against the strong chest, hearing the powerful heartbeat within. He was happy the two of them had made it through with minimal damage, he couldn't fathom a world without Yami.

"Mmm, I don't know, love." Yami answered drowsily. "The rebels will do their best to convince them we have their best interests in mind, but we'll have to see."

"We don't want to rule by force." Yugi said quietly.

"No, and that is why we are giving them the choice right off the bat." Yami replied. He kissed the top of Yugi's head. "Go to sleep love, we'll know what the world has decided in the morning." Yugi nodded in assent and nuzzled his face against Yami's chest. The last thing he felt before sleep claimed him was the protective feeling of Yami wrapping his arms around him.

Morning seemed to come too swiftly, because sleep was rudely interrupted by furious knocking on the door and Bakura's yelling voice.

"You two better be out of that room in five minutes or I'm coming in there! We've got work to do!" They heard his footsteps retreat and sighed together, reluctantly leaving the warm cocoon of each other's embrace. They exchanged a few kisses and brief, playful touches as they got dressed and then headed out of the room, hand in hand.

"What's the word?" Yami asked Bakura in the control room of the Hellhound base. Bakura shrugged his shoulders.

"There's been a lot of back and forth all night. There was some talk about having individual governments for countries again, but that was almost unanimously scrapped. Too many people remember the wars fought between countries and unequal sharing." He explained. "Then there's been the back and forth about who's going to run things, whether they can trust us or not, and well, no one seems to have come to a real consensus on that."

"Hm, that's a problem." Yami murmured, gazing over the room now immaculately scrubbed of blood and free of bodies.

"I may have a suggestion." Seto said.

"And what's that?" Bakura asked.

"Give us a trial period, say, a year or so, to convince them that we can run things better than the Overlord. Remind them that we are just people like them who grew tired of the suffering they saw every day. Tell them that if at any time they feel we are inadequate, they can take us down."

Bakura relayed the words to the other rebels, who in turn relayed them to the people. Those in the capital took the time to attend the funeral pyre stacked high with friendly and enemy dead. The Overlord's body had been left to the wild, to be torn apart by animals and rot. Eventually answers came pouring back in and Bakura grinned slightly at them.

"One year fellas, they're giving us one year to impress them, we'd better make it good."

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Wolf: Review plz!


	24. Epilogue

Wolf: Final chapter, hope you all enjoy and I'll see you with a new story very soon!

"What's the word on crops in Argentina, weren't they having troubles?" Yami asked as he headed to his office.

"The crops are doing better, but we are having crops sent in from Mexico to supplement them." Yugi answered, falling in step beside him.

"How are the university programs doing?"

"45% increase in graduates in medicine, business, politics and teaching in the last six months." Seto replied. "Hospitals report a greater influx of doctors, even the new ones built."

"Excellent." Yami sighed.

"Oh, Yami, do you know what day it is?" Bakura asked as he sauntered up, a big smirk on his face.

"Tuesday." Yami replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but it's Tuesday, a year since we started running things." Bakura persisted. Yami's eyes widened as he realized the implications of the date.

Their allotted one year had passed, and it just barely felt like yesterday that they had begun. First they had sent out medical supplies, reopening the hospitals, getting the doctors to come back and organizing world-wide clinics for all those sick and needy. It took days and weeks to get through everyone and find what was really needed in the hospitals.

The next thing on the list was getting the economy back on its feet for everyone. Yami basically destroyed the old economy, wiping out debt and capital alike and starting from scratch, everyone on the same page. He redistributed the wealth, bringing prices down and wages back up in order to erase the plague of poverty that had struck the world.

They encouraged local growing where possible and organic as much as possible. Work, once the scientists came out of hiding, was begun on clean fuel sources and cleaner ways to burn what oil there was left. Money was put into construction and reconstruction of the world, a lot of focus on the devastation that was London.

As order began to be restored, it began to be clear that the priorities and values of the world had shifted. Where once it was 'every man for himself' in much of the world, people were more willing to help each other out. There was also a much greater demand for environmentally friendly practices, after the mindless destruction that the Overlord created in his quests for power and wealth. Even wealth was of lesser value now, and industries like precious metals and gemstones had yet to be re-established.

The crime rate was down in the world, and those that did find themselves on the wrong side of the law found the courts to be much fairer, but punishments for such heavy crimes as murder and rape severe enough to discourage most. Yami had kept the death penalty for the worst offenders, but was lenient with petty crimes.

The surviving Hellhounds were either put into prison for their attitudes and crimes, or else allowed to rejoin society if they could follow the new laws and operate as normal human beings. Some had been sceptical of a former Hellhound running things, but those murmurs had all but died after the first month. Because the new leader was homosexual, a new age of tolerance began as well.

"Lucky for you I've been keeping an eye on things, and even created a poll for the world to let us know how they feel about you in power." Seto smirked, while catching Joey around the waist as he was coming from the other direction. Joey had moved in with Seto and Mokuba, and Mokuba frequently appalled Seto and embarrassed Joey by suggesting that they keep it down at nights, and offering sexual tips every once in awhile.

"Well, what are they saying?" Yami asked impatiently when Seto continued to be silent.

"There is an almost unanimous decision that we should stay in power." He replied. "There are of course those blowhards that think they could do better, or whose interests you have failed to fund, like the precious metals folks."

"Bah, let them stew, the world has no need of their greed." Yugi snorted. "Our world is better than the one in which they got rich." Yami nodded and kissed Yugi's forehead.

"So, is that it then? We keep on making all the rules, and keeping things running?" Joey asked.

"Until such a time as the world believes we have done poorly, and then we will either step down and let someone they feel will better take care of them step up, or change our way of running things." Yami replied. "Above all we must remember to keep the people first, and not our own interests. If we do that, we should have no problems at all."

"We made the world a better place, how can they say no to us?" Seto asked.

"We didn't just do it ourselves." Yami reminded him. "We've taken the time to listen to the concerns of people from every corner of the world, listened to the advice of those who know how business and agriculture and everything else works and taken the time to remember how the great politicians of the past did their work." Yami told him. "All the people of the world have made this world a better place, we were just a part of that process."

"That was a fine little speech, but some of us got work to do now that we know we're still the government." Joey sighed, disentangling himself from Seto's grasp, giving him a quick peck on the lips and then dancing off.

"I'm sure we've all got work to get back to." Yami smiled. His friends and advisors nodded and took their leave, Yugi leaving him with a sweet kiss goodbye. Yami headed on back to his office, but took a moment to look out the floor-to-ceiling windows in the hall, looking out on the world.

He could see people going about their business, children playing and adults working or walking about. The world from his window looked clean and hopeful, good and kind. He smiled to himself, thinking that all the hardships, all the waiting and all the pain had been worth it after all. It was a new world, and it was all theirs.

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Wolf: That's it all! Hope you enjoyed!


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